How safe are Indians in Afghanistan?

Kandahar: Taliban militants on Sunday claimed that they had killed Suryanarayan, a comunications engineer with Bahraini firm Al-Moayyad, who was working in Afghanistan.

With his death, hundreds of other Indians working in Afghanistan now feel that they, too, are under constant threat from the Taliban.

Thousands of Indian doctors, engineers and labourers are currently working in various locations across Afghanistan under severe conditions.

They go to this country for the lure of higher pay and better job opportunities. Unemployment and dearth of money, too, drive many people to seek employment in Afghanistan even at the cost of putting their own lives at risk.

Sources say the Taliban militants are very much active in the southern parts of Afghanistan. Even the Afghan government has not been able to control these elements of late.

The Afghan government has also failed miserably in providing security cover to the Indians working there. The issue of security for Indians working in Afghanistan was taken up with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, when he visited New Delhi earlier last month.

In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, Karzai had denied the charge that there was a threat to the security of Indians in Afghanistan. However, he had admitted that the militant forces were still active in most parts of the country.

Indians working in Iraq, too, have been facing a similar threat. To make matters worse, in some cases Indian workers have even been facing dearth of food, water and medical aid in these countries. President Karzai had expressed his inability to cope with such issues.

Apart from the security issue, the death of Suryanarayan has now raised serious doubts over the very stability of Afghan government as it has not been able to put any effective check on Taliban activities in the country even months after a duly-elected government took over.

Apart from supplying skilled manpower, India has also been actively involved in the reconstruction of the war-torn country. In the last four years, India has pledged $550 million towards Afghanistan's reconstruction.

The key sectors in which India is helping the rebuilding process include infrastructure, health, education, agriculture, industry, telecommunications, information and broadcasting.

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According to officials in the Ministry of External Affairs, nearly 2,500 Indians are currently working in Afghanistan on various projects -- building roads, bridges, power projects, government office buildings, health centres etc.

The killing of Suryanarayan is not the first instance when Taliban have targetted Indians working in that country.

Maniappan was the first Indian worker to have fallen victim to Taliban terror. Before him, Taliban has kidnapped and subsequently released Indian workers in various locations across Afghanistan.

In 2003, Murali and Varada Rao -- two Indian engineers working on a road project in the Zabul province -- were abducted and were released 19 days later after Afghan tribal leaders negotiated with the Taliban.

Though the Indians were released unconditionally, the incident forced India to send an Indo-Tibetan Border Police force to various locations in Afghanistan where Indians are working.

Meanwhile, the MEA has been asked the Afghan government to take some concrete measures to ensure security for the Indian personnel working in Afghanistan.

"We have to rethink our policy. Terrorism is a monster. We have warned the government time and again on these issues," said CPI-M leader Nilotpal Basu.

Interestingly, Suryanarayan's death has also raised questions as to whether Indians who go there are actually told about the dangers of working in Afghanistan.

"Several engineers working there had assured Suryanarayan that Afghanistan was indeed a safe place to work," Suryanarayan's wife told CNN-IBN.

Sadly, even the company that hired Suryanarayan besides several other Indians to work in Afghanistan has not been forthcoming in this case.