Symbolic funeral held for Indian worker killed in Afghanistan

Chennai, Feb 16 : The family of Simon Paramanathan, the Indian worker who died in the custody of his abductors in Afghanistan, conducted his last rites symbolically at a town in Tamil Nadu Monday as his body remains untraceable.

The victim's brother Subramanian, who is also employed in Afghanistan, brought soil from the country where he worked to symbolise Paramanathan, family sources said.

The 38-year-old's body has not yet been traced, a week after his death in Afghanistan's Herat province.

The symbolic ceremony was held in Brahmagundam, over 200 km from here, the sources said.

Paramanathan, who worked for an Italian food chain in Herat, was kidnapped by unknown militants Oct 13 last year. The abductors had demanded a ransom of USD 50,000.

Vasanti Paramanathan, the victim's 35-year-old widow, had said that officials in Afghanistan told her that her husband was murdered Feb 8.

Vasanti had said that her husband Paramanathan, who embraced Christianity when they married a few years ago, was murdered on two counts - the first being non-payment of a ransom of USD 50,000 and the second that he was a Christian.