Taliban has announced Sunday evening the ultimatum to the Indian company to leave Afghanistan for the safe release of the kidnapped Indian engineer.

Taliban's spokesperson Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said, Taliban has given the Indian construction company named Border Road Organization the ultimatum to leave Afghanistan in 48 hours, otherwise they will behead the kidnapped Indian engineer.

The Indian engineer from the Border Road Organization, together with his two bodyguards and one driver, was kidnapped Saturday by Taliban militants in Afghan southern province of Nimruz.

About the three local kidnapees, Ahmadi said Taliban's high council will decide about their fate.

Taliban regime, which has been ousted since late 2001, has since then for several times kidnapped Indian and Turkish construction workers or engineers for road construction in the southern provinces. A Briton working for a road construction project was kidnapped and killed by Taliban militants in September in the western Farah province.

More than 1,500 people, with the majority of them Taliban militants, have been killed in the Taliban-linked militancy since the beginning of this year, the bloodiest one after 2001.

Source: Xinhua