Related: Taliban executes Indian engineer in S. Afghanistan

    NEW DELHI, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday condemned the killing of an abducted Indian engineer by Taliban militia in southern Afghanistan.

    Prime Minister Singh has "severely condemned" the act of terrorism and urged the country to remain united against terrorism, Sanjaya Baru, media advisor to the prime minister, was quoted as saying by the Indo-Asian News service.

    The prime minister also conveyed his grief to the family of K. Suryanarayana, and assured all help to his family, according to Indo-Asian News Service.

    Afghanistan authorities Sunday confirmed that they had found the body of Suryanarayana, hours after he was executed by Taliban militants in Zabul province.

    The Taliban killed the Indian engineer before their 24-hour deadline for his release ended. The deadline was to end at 6 p.m. (1230 GMT) Sunday. The militia also linked his release with the withdrawal of Indian companies from Afghanistan.

    Suryanarayana was abducted on Friday from Zabul province on the Kabul-Kandahar road. The 41-year-old telecom engineer was working for a Bahrain-based company.

    Earlier, Taliban's purported spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi claimed from an unknown location that the Islamist group opened fire and killed the engineer after he attempted to escape from their detention center.

    Ahmadi added that the leadership of Taliban was sorry for the incident as the 24-hour deadline was not yet over. Enditem