Six Indian engineers working on a power plant project in northern Afghanistan were kidnapped along with their Afghan driver on Sunday, Afghan officials said. Gunmen snatched the seven from a vehicle on the outskirts of Baghlan provincial capital Pule-Khumri, police spokesman Zabi Shuja told AFP.

Provincial council chairman Mohammad Safdar Mohseni said the group had been travelling in a largely Taliban-controlled area when they were abducted after ignoring warnings to take a police escort. Indian external affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar confirmed the abduction of Indian nationals, but did not say how many were taken or what they were doing in Baghlan. "We are in contact with the Afghan authorities and further details are being ascertained," Kumar said in a statement.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2018