Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan is feared abducted

[HAIDER]

Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan is feared abducted after going missing in a Pakistani tribal region while driving to Kabul, state television said on Monday, quoting the foreign office. Government-run Pakistan Television said the envoy went missing in the Khyber tribal district, one of seven semi-autonomous regions along the Afghan border where militants have carried out attacks. (Posted @ 20:50 PST)
- DAWN - Latest Stories; February 11, 2008

 

[Energon]

Why was such a high profile target travelling by road through this troubled area? I'd figure they'd fly VIPs in and out at night.

 

[HAIDER]

Special mission. Meeting some underground people on its way to Kabul. Acting as mail man.

 

[Energon]

Special mission. Meeting some underground people on its way to Kabul. Acting as mail man.

Hmmm... that sounds a bit dicey. If he was meeting people within Pakistani territory then it wouldn't be a problem; but if he was meeting with parties in Afghanistan without the knowledge of the Afghan government then it could end up becoming a diplomatic issue. Nonetheless, it's still surprising that an ambassador would be sent on a mission of this sort.

 

[S-2]

Sounds VERY dicey.

I doubt it lest the Pakistani foreign ministry carry little regard for the credentials and credibility of it's chief afghan diplomat. Million and one characters who could be used as a "bag-man". He'd be way down the list I'd think as it must be one of Pakistan's most important foreign diplomatic postings.

He wouldn't need/want that type of possible exposure. Neither the GoP.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

A very odd situation that has developed.

Real badlands where govt is unable to protect. But then, the Ambassador could have actually been an intelligence man in his real avatar and he was only doing his duty. Part of the job hazards I presume.

But what is interesting is that he was the Ambassador to Afghanistan and so why was he hobnobbing with the locals, who I learn from RR and P2bP have nothing to do the problems of Afghanistan?

Could it be that they have something to do with Afghanistan?

 

[maqsad]

I am absolutely shocked, that from a tactical point of view this could have been allowed. I would have expected the ambassador to have gone into the meeting only with dozens of SSG commandos monitoring things from close by.

 

[mujahideen]

Pakistani ambassador goes missing

Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan has gone missing before he was due to cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan.
Sources have told the BBC that the ambassador, Tariq Azizuddin, was kidnapped in the Khyber tribal agency close to the Afghan border.

The Pakistani embassy in Kabul says contact was lost with Mr Azizuddin at around 1045 local time (0645 GMT).

Many areas in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are strongholds of pro-Taleban militants.

Dangerous region

Mr Azizuddin was going to Kabul from Peshawar by road when he disappeared.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Afghanistan says that police in Pakistan's Khyber Agency said they believed that Mr Azizuddin had been kidnapped.

There were reports on Pakistani television of his car going through a checkpoint without stopping.

Hundreds of people have been kidnapped in the dangerous border region in recent years - four Pakistani Red Cross workers went missing in the same area a few days ago.

An official of the Khyber agency tribal administration told the BBC that the ambassador went through the Khyber agency without taking a security escort that was waiting for him at the start of the tribal territory.

Correspondents say that such escorts are routinely sent with dignitaries and officials when they travel through tribal areas.

But some travellers dispense with them because they think it makes their movements more noticeable.

Mr Azizuddin is said to have previously travelled to Kabul by road, often without the tribal security escort.

'Changed cars'
The route through the agency is believed to be the shortest and quickest way between Peshawar, the Pakistani border city in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Kabul.

Being the main trade route, the Khyber agency road is busy in daylight hours, and is a major route supplying reinforcements and supplies to the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.


It is also one of the most protected of all the tribal roads, with a contingent of tribal police posted every 100m. The paramilitary Frontier Corps have a fort along the road.

Our correspondent says that while few well known militant groups operate in the area, a local extremist cleric has occasionally created trouble.

But he has no links with any militant groups affiliated with the Taleban or al-Qaeda.

Security officials told the Reuters news agency that the envoy was due to have changed cars at the border, but did not reach the frontier.

The Pakistani foreign office said that it could not confirm or deny that a kidnapping had taken place.

Correspondents say the disappearance highlights continuing instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan - a key ally in the US-led "war on terror" - with important parliamentary polls just one week away.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistani ambassador goes missing

 

[mujahideen]

Taliban want to swap Dadullah with envoy

OUR STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR - Despite hectic efforts on the part of political administration of Khyber Agency, the whereabouts of Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, who had gone missing from Khyber Agency while going to Kabul on Monday, could not be ascertained till Tuesday.
According news agencies, local Taliban who claimed kidnapping of Tariq have demanded release of Mullah Mansoor Dadullah in exchange for release of the envoy. Officials have been making all-out efforts to trace the ambassador.
Our Monitoring Desk adds: President Pervez Musharraf has taken a stern notice of the kidnapping incident of Pakistani diplomat to Kabul Tariq Azizuddin, and directed the authorities to take every possible step for diplomat’s recovery, reported a private TV channel quoting the sources of the President House.
According to Our Staff Reporter, Tariq Azizuddin along with his driver and gunman was abducted from the track between Jamrud and Ali Masjid areas of Khyber Agency.
His kidnapping or disappearing was confirmed when Afghan officials at Torkham waiting for escorting the Pakistani ambassador to Kabul contacted their Pakistani counterparts.
The officials at Khyber House Peshawar when contacted said that Political Agent held a meeting with the members of traditional tribal jirga at Landi Kotal on Tuesday morning.
They failed to secure envoy’s release and the Political Agent along with Assistant Political Agent and other officials left for Bazaar village, an entrance to inaccessible Tirrah valley. There are reports regarding a vehicle with ambassador on board in Baghan Khawar area, however, the officials said that such reports are yet to be confirmed.
The political administration has directed elders from all over Khyber Agency to fulfil their territorial responsibilities by ensuring early and safe recovery of the abducted ambassador. The officials are also silent about rumours that local Taliban are behind envoy’s abduction. The Taliban are demanding the release of Mullah Mansoor Dadullah who was arrested along with his two brothers from Chaman area of Balochistan on Monday.
APP adds: Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq told APP on Tuesday morning that he could not still confirm or reject the possibility of kidnapping of Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin.
“Efforts are being made at all levels to find the missing ambassador. He has gone missing, we are confirming he is missing but at this stage we cannot give you any more details,” the spokesman said.
Agencies add: authorities continued search for the abducted ambassador and two kidnapped nuclear experts as insecurity mounted ahead of crucial elections next week.
The abductions happened on Monday near the country’s rugged northwestern border with Afghanistan, where Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants are waging an insurgency against the US-allied government in Islamabad.
A private TV quoting bureau chief of an Arab TV channel, reported that local Taliban admitted that they had kidnapped the Pakistani envoy and asked the tribal leaders of Khyber Agency to convey their message to the government that they were ready to free Tariq in exchange for the release of Mansoor Dadullah.
Mansoor Dadullah was arrested Monday in Balochistan along with his aides in a wounded state.
“We have launched efforts for his recovery. It now appears clear that he has been kidnapped,” Rasool Khan Wazir, chief administrative official in Khyber, told AFP.
“We are trying to collect information.... We cannot disclose our strategy but we are hopeful we will find out where he has been kept and who is involved.”
Security officials said tribal authorities were scouring the rugged area, the site of the famed Khyber Pass linking Afghanistan and Pakistan, and had closed the main road between the two countries.
The Pakistan embassy in Kabul said it last had contact with the ambassador on Monday morning as he travelled from Peshawar into the tribal area.
Police on Tuesday confirmed that two technicians from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission had also been abducted by masked men in the country’s northwest.
The officials were on a routine visit to conduct a geological survey for mineral exploration in a mountainous area which adjoins Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions, local police chief Akbar Nasir said. “We don’t know if the abductors were militants or members of some criminal gang,” he said.

The Nation

 

[mujahideen]

Officials claim finding clue to missing envoy

By Ibrahim Shinwari

LANDI KOTAL, Feb 14: As search continued for Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin who went missing in Khyber Agency on Monday, the political administration launched a crackdown on the agency’s Jandakhel tribe.

Officials, meanwhile, said the administration had found a clue that could lead to the recovery of the diplomat, his driver and a security guard.

An official said 11 people of the tribe had been arrested and five vehicles impounded under the territorial responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation. He said the men had gone missing in the area of the tribe.

NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani told journalists in Peshawar that the scope of the search operation had been extended to the entire area and several teams had been constituted.

He said there were speculations that the kidnappers might have shifted the ambassador to Orakzai Agency.

Officials in Khyber Agency said the diplomat was possibly still their area although they had claimed that his vehicle was last seen in Orakzai Agency.

“The Jandakhel tribe has been targeted because some of its elders disappeared after the abduction of Ambassador Azizuddin,” an official said. “This aroused suspicion about their possible involvement in the kidnapping.”

Jandakhel tribesmen blocked the Peshawar-Torkham highway for about one hour in protest against the arrests.

Officials claim finding clue to missing envoy -DAWN - Top Stories; February 15, 2008