Unknown gunmen have kidnapped seven engineers, mostly Indian nationals, in the restive northern Baghlan province of Afghanistan.
The abductees were working at an electricity substation in the Khaja Alwan desert and were traveling to work Sunday morning when “armed men” ambushed them and took them away, a provincial police spokesman told VOA.
Zabihullah Shuja said two Afghan engineers were also among the hostages. Media reports however quoted other officials as saying six Indians were among the missing people.
The victims were said to be employees of an Indian company that runs the substation located near the provincial capital of Pul-e-Khomri.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the incident in an Afghan province where Taliban insurgents contest several districts.
Transmission lines and installations in Baghlan are used to supply electricity imported from the neighboring Central Asian countries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to northern Afghan provinces, including Kabul.
Last month, the Taliban destroyed a key tower during fighting with Afghan forces, plunging the national capital and a vast area in northern Afghanistan into darkness for several days.
Afghan forces retake northern district
Meanwhile, officials in nearby northern Badakhshan province confirmed Sunday that Afghan security forces, backed by airpower, have retaken a district from the Taliban.
The insurgents had last week overrun Kohistan, which borders Pakistan after several days of intense clashes.
A provincial government spokesman said the retreating Taliban suffered heavy casualties but he gave no numbers.
The Islamist insurgency announced its annual spring offensive last month, leading to an intensification in violence across Afghanistan.
Officials also confirmed that a roadside bomb struck a passenger vehicle in northern Faryab province, killing seven people. The victims were shopkeepers on their way to market.
Saturday night, three heavily armed suicide bombers attacked a house belonging to Abdula Razeq, the powerful police chief of the southern Kandahar province. One assailant blew himself up at the entrance of the building while the other two were gunned down by Afghan security forces.
Razeq later told VOA that neither he nor his family members were present at the house when the attack occurred in the town of Spin Boldak on the Pakistani border.
The police chief has a fearsome reputation fighting the Taliban and has survived many assassination attempts.
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