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| India-Pakistan |
| Kidnapped Afghan politician recovered from Mardan after shootout |
| 2016-02-27 |
| [DAWN] A former Afghan governor kidnapped nearly two weeks ago in Islamabad was freed Friday after a shootout with police in Mardan, he told AFP, saying he could not identify the men who kidnapped him. Wahidi, who served as governor of Afghanistan's Kunar and Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... provinces, said he was blindfolded and being transported by his kidnappers when they were stopped at a police checkpoint in Mardan. Gunfire rang out, he said, and the three men holding him at the time bravely ran away. Speaking from the Afghan consulate in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , he said he did not know who snatched him from an Islamabad neighbourhood on Feb 12. "The kidnappers did not talk about their demands and they did not put me in contact with my family," he told AFP. He said they had treated him well, adding they had not tortured him and fed him regularly. Wahidi said he plans to fly to Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the Worldand didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... later Friday. Wahidi was taken to various places after his abduction, Afghan Consul General Dr Abdullah Waheed Pohan said. The consul general said he received a call from Mardan police early Friday and was informed that Wahidi had been recovered in the area after an encounter. Wahidi was taken to the Afghan consulate in Peshawar at 4am. "He is fine physically but has been mentally disturbed," Pohan said of the ex-governor. A senior local police official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed police had secured Wahidi's release early Friday, but said he could give no further details about the kidnappers' identity or whether a ransom was paid. A senior diplomat in the Afghan consulate in Peshawar, Muhammad Wali Sultani, also confirmed Wahidi was handed over to them early Friday. |
| Posted by:Fred |