Pakistan’s Ambassador To Afghanistan Kidnapped
Pictured: “Welcome to the border, Meestah Ambassador.”
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.
(BBC)
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