15 January 2004	Thursday	22 Ziqa'ad 1424

PESHAWAR, Jan 14: The political administration of North Waziristan Agency has failed to make any headway into the mysterious disappearance of Punjab Sports and Culture Minister Naeemullah Shahani who went missing in Miramshah last week, officials said.

However, one senior official said here on Wednesday the authorities had found some specific leads which could help recover the minister, who reportedly sneaked into Miramshah to buy a non-custom paid vehicle.

"There are specific tips that would give us some credible clues to the whereabouts of Mr Shahani," the official said. He said the North Waziristan Agency's administration had focused on Razmak where the minister was seen last and the elders of the area were being approached to help trace the minister, who is presumed to have been abducted in the agency.

But an official of the agency told Dawn by phone that the administration was not expecting immediate breakthrough in the recovery of the minister and his captors.

The beleaguered administration has set up checkpoints in different parts of the tribal agency and the Khasadar force is deployed to check vehicles coming to and going from the agency.

Officials said the abductors had not contacted the family or relatives of Mr Shahani, so far. The authorities abolished special control room at the Governor's Cottage, Miramshah, which was set up some two days back.

Sources said more arrests were on card which could lead to the identity of the culprits. The local administration has already taken six persons into custody who are being questioned.

LASHKER: A tribal lashker in the troubled South Waziristan handed over another wanted person to the political administration in Wana, the agency's headquarters, on Wednesday.

Officials said a lashker of Tojikhel Wazir tribe arrested Maulvi Ajam, the head of a seminary near Wana town, and handed him over to the administration.

Our reporter from Lahore adds: Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman was playing a major role in the recovery of Sports Minister Naeemullah Khan Shahani and a major breakthrough was expected in near future in this connection. He was talking to reporters at Alhamra after speaking at an award distribution ceremony here on Wednesday morning.