December 22, 2003	Monday	Shawwal 27, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, Dec 21: Covert agency officials picked up an official of the Afghan Trade Commission here on suspicion of links with the Al Qaeda network and Taliban fugitives, sources said on Sunday.

Abdul Hanan, a transport clerk in the Afghan Trade Commissioner’s office, was picked up along with two other companions in Hayatabad township’s phase-I on Saturday evening, sources said.

It was learnt that Mr Hanan is the first cousin of Afghan Consul-General in Peshawar, Mr Abdul Khaliq Farahi.

“Covert agency officials covered the faces of the Afghans with cloth and dragged them from their car and whisked them away,” sources said.

Later, Mr Hanan was taken away to some unknown place for interrogation while the two persons accompanying him were freed.

Sources said: “He was taken to Islamabad for interrogation.”

The local police said they did not know about Mr Hanan’s arrest.

Terming the incident unfortunate, an official of the Afghan consulate in Peshawar said the arrested man was an “innocent Afghan government official” and he had been arrested “on vague charges.”

“We have informed the Pakistan Foreign Office and the Afghan government in Kabul about the arrest of the Afghan official,” he added.

But, he said, they did not want to make the arrest an issue, which could harm Afghanistan’s relations with Pakistan.

He denied Abdul Hanan’s relations with any anti-Karzai government forces and ruled out his involvement in any activity detrimental to either Pakistani or Afghan governments.

Meanwhile, the Afghan consulate has lodged an FIR with the Hayatabad police station against unidentified persons for kidnapping Abdul Hanan.