Abducted Indian freed in Afghanistan

Afghan security forces free an Indian and a Nepalese national kidnapped a month ago in the western province of Herat.

Afghan security forces freed an Indian and a Nepalese national kidnapped a month ago in the western province of Herat, a provincial intelligence chief said on Sunday.

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The men were safe in a police compound in the western Adraskan district, provincial intelligence chief Habibullah Habib told AFP.

He could not immediately comment on their condition.

"We had an operation last night and the forces found the place where the Indian and Nepalese were and we freed them. We arrested the head of the kidnapping group," Habib said.

The pair, working in logistics provision for Afghan security camps, went missing on April 21 while travelling in Adraskan, which borders Iran. Their Afghan driver told authorities that gunmen had taken the foreigners but freed him.

The extremist Taliban group, blamed for scores of such abductions over the past years, never claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

Afghanistan sees regular abductions by criminal gangs aimed at extorting a ransom, and sometimes kill or maim their victims.