Indian NGO worker abducted in Afghanistan

NEW DELHI: A Madurai Jesuit Province member,  Fr Alexis Prem Kumar,  working with an NGO in Afghanistan’s Herat  province was abducted on Monday. Sources in Chennai said he had been working for the NGO for the last three years. External affairs ministry  spokesman Syed Akbaruddin confirmed the abduction in a tweet,  saying the MEA was pursuing it with the local authorities.

The abduction comes just two days after foreign secretary Sujatha Singh returned from Afghanistan, where she had reviewed the  security of the Indian embassy in Kabul and the four consulates in  Herat, Mazar-e-Sharief, Kandahar and Jalalabad. Khaama Press, an Afghan news agency, said the Indian was  abducted by gunmen in Zenda Jan district Monday afternoon.

A local security official said the incident took place while the aid worker was visiting the area to assess the progress of work of a project. No group, including Taliban militants, has so far claimed responsibility.This comes soon after the attack on the Indian consulate in Herat, for which the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is believed to be responsible.