One Indian and one Nepalese, kidnapped by unknown persons on April 21, have been freed Sunday in western Afghan province of Herat, a provincial police spokesman said.

"Afghan security personnel arrested five persons with suspected links to the abductors following the kidnapping in Adraskan district of Herat, which mounted pressure on the kidnappers and thus forced them to release the Indian and Nepalese," Noor Khan Nikzad, Herat's police spokesman, told Xinhua.

He said the abductors early Sunday morning released the two abductees on a road in Adraskan district.

"The five suspects were still in the custody of security personnel," Nikzad added, rejecting suspicion about a possible personnel exchange deal between authorities and the abductors.

According to officials, the Indian and Napalese nationals working in logistics provision for Afghan security camps were kidnapped by armed men when they along with an Afghan driver were driving to Adraskan district on April 21.

Abductions of foreigners by armed gangs or insurgents were common in Afghanistan, which has still been in the grip of spiraling violence after the hard-line Taliban outfit was ousted from power six and half years ago.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2008)