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| India-Pakistan |
| Family of abducted ambassador issue 'fervent' appeal for his release |
| 2008-05-04 |
| The family of Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan appealed on Saturday to his kidnappers to free him and expressed frustration at the government’s failure to secure his release three months after he vanished on a border highway. Tariq Azizuddin, his driver and his bodyguard disappeared on February 11 as they drove from Peshawar towards the Afghan border. In a video aired on April 19 on an Arab satellite channel, Azizuddin said that Taliban militants had kidnapped them. In a statement issued on Saturday, the envoy’s family said that while “some contact” had been established with Azizuddin a month after his abduction, there was no sign he would be released soon. They did not elaborate on the contact, but they said they had learned that his health was deteriorating because of his confinement in “subhuman conditions”. It remains unclear if Azizuddin is really in the hands of the Taliban and whether he has become a pawn in peace talks between the government and tribal militants. |
| Posted by:Fred |