Local Taliban on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the abduction of Pakistani Ambassador to Kabul Tariq Azizuddin and said they would release him in return for Taliban commander Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, Online news agency quoted Geo television as saying.Tariq Azizuddin had gone missing on his way from Peshawar to the Torkham border crossing on Monday when he lost contact with authorities in the Khyber Agency. Mansoor Dadullah was arrested in Quetta on Monday. Geo quoted the bureau chief of an Arab television channel as saying that the local Taliban had asked tribal elders to convey their message to the Pakistani government. “We have heard this news on TV channels,” Interior Ministry spokesman Brig (r) Javed Iqbal Cheema told reporters after a weekly press briefing at his office. “However, we have not received any formal information to this effect.”
During the briefing, Cheema had said the government did not know who had kidnapped Azizuddin or what had happened to him. Asked if the government would trade Dadullah for Azizuddin, Cheema said, “I cannot say anything.”
Vehicle found: Political administration officials said they had received reports that Azizuddin’s vehicle had been found in Taghyan area of Landi Kotal, after a daylong search operation by tribal police (Khasadars) and Levies. The Foreign Office did not confirm the report. “He is still missing and search is underway for his recovery,” Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq told Daily Times. He did not comment on why the ambassador had not asked the political administration for security officials to escort him.
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He said the Landi Kotal assistant political agent had complained to the authorities three months ago that Tariq Azizuddin used to travel on the route without escort and without informing the political administration. A television channel quoted its sources in PresidentÂ’s House as saying that President Pervez Musharraf had expressed anger at the envoyÂ’s disappearance and had directed the interior ministry to find him immediately.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday that he hoped for Azizuddin’s quick rescue from “terrorists”, AFP said. “May God make it happen that our brother and neighbouring country, Pakistan, is able to rescue him from the abductors, the terrorists,” Karzai said.
A search operation led by the Khyber Agency political agent began on Tuesday morning. Tribal elders were part of the operation. Officials said the envoy had not gone ahead of the Ali Masjid area, notorious for kidnappings of travellers on the route.