A kidnapped Indian telecommunications worker has been found beheaded in southern Afghanistan, police said on Sunday.

The body found near Kandahar in Afghanistan is that of K Suryanarayan, 41, the abducted Indian engineer, the office of the Indian prime minister, Mamohan Singh, said on Sunday.

Suryanarayan was kidnapped on Friday with his driver after armed men stopped their vehicle on a road in Zabul province.

Taliban fighters said on Saturday they took both men and vowed to kill the Indian unless India withdrew all its workers from Afghanistan in 24 hours.

"We found the body, beheaded, in a ditch by a road, about 10km from where he was kidnapped," said Mohammad Mir, a district police chief in the southern province of Zabul.

Mir said there was no word on the fate of the Afghan driver.

Suryanarayan appeared to have been killed on Saturday evening and his body had been taken to Ghazni province, he said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone Suryanarayan had been shot dead on Saturday evening while trying to escape.

The Taliban claimed to have kidnapped both men and said on Saturday afternoon that the Indian man would be killed unless India withdrew all its workers from Afghanistan in 24 hours.

The threat came as violence in the south of the country left 11 insurgents and three Afghan policemen dead.

The threat to kill Suryanarayan was made by a Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, in a telephone call to AFP.

Suryanarayan was working as a contractor for Afghan mobile phone network Roshan.

PHOTO CAPTION

Afghan President Hamid Karzai salutes when inspecting a guard of honor during a military parade for the 14th anniversary of the Mujahidin victory in Kabul Friday. (AP)