Despite Pakistan’s denial that it had nothing to do with the killing of Indian engineer K Suryanarayan in Afghanistan last month, the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul has communicated to New Delhi that the Pakistani ISI was behind the engineer’s murder by the Taliban.

Official sources said that the Karzai administration, using institutionalised security channels, confirmed the ISI hand in the killing. New Delhi, sources said, is convinced that Islamabad is trying hard to force Indians out of Afghanistan’s reconstruction effort.

Suryanarayan, working for a Bahrain firm in Zabul, was abducted and beheaded by the Taliban in the troubled Zabul province.

While New Delhi has not taken up the issue with Pakistan, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran discussed the issue with R&AW chief P K Hormese Tharakan this month. The matter has also been discussed at the highest levels in the UPA government. It was decided to let the Karzai government tackle the issue.

In an interview to Kabul’s private Tolu TV channel, a Taliban commander claimed that Suryanarayan was killed by Mullah Latif, a militiaman working for Maulvi Mohammed Alam Andar, on the orders of the ISI.

shishir.gupta@expressindia.com