By Xinhua
Islamabad : Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin has gone missing for 13 days but the government believes he is safe and alive, the foreign office spokesman said Saturday.
Azizuddin went missing Feb 11 in Khyber tribal agency, one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal regions along the Afghan border.
He was travelling to Kabul from Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province, by road in his car with a driver and bodyguard when the local administration lost contact with them.
Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said security forces were actively searching for the missing official in the area. Expressing his confidence that the ambassador was safe and alive, Sadiq said all measures would be taken to trace him.
Last week local media reported that Taliban had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and said Azizuddin would be released in exchange for the release of their detained leader Mulla Mansoor Dadullah.
However, the government rejected any such claim and made it clear that nobody had contacted them on the abduction nor made any demand.