Reuters

Kandahar (Afghanistan), June 12: Four members of a construction gang building a road in southern Afghanistan were found shot dead on Sunday in an area where Taliban fighters have carried out similar killings in the past, a provincial official said.

The bodies of the men, who are all believed to be Afghans, were found in a roadside ditch in Maiwand district four days after they were abducted while working for an Indian road construction company, Dawud Ahmad, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, told Reuters.

Employees of Indian road builders have been targeted in the past by Taliban fighters, sowing more distrust between governments in the region.

The Afghan government believes that many of the insurgents cross over from Pakistan, though Pakistan insists it is doing its best to stop them.

The Pakistan government, however, is believed to be unsettled by the Indian presence in southern Afghanistan and by New Delhi's warm relations with President hamid Karzai's government in Kabul, according to diplomats, leading to speculation that the killing of road workers was a message of some kind.

The insurgency is going through its bloodiest period since a Taliban government was ousted by U.S.-backed forces in late 2001, and guerrillas have infiltrated large swathes of the rural south, ahead of the planned deployment of some 6,000 NATO peacekeepers by late July.

Hundreds of people, mostly militants, have been killed in fighting in the last few weeks alone, as US-led coalition forces increasingly have carried the fight to the Taliban before the planned hand over of control in the south to NATO.