ISLAMABAD, May 29: Pakistan on Monday issued a fresh warning to its citizens not to travel to Iraq due to the alarming security situation there. The Foreign Office on Monday reiterated its travel advisory to Pakistanis and said: “The Government of Pakistan and our missions abroad have from time to time been issuing travel advisories for our nationals advising them against travelling to Iraq.”
Meanwhile, it said efforts were under way to ascertain the whereabouts of a Pakistani, Mohammad Shafique Aslam, resident of Tehsil Gojra, who had been reported missing in Iraq.
The embassies in Kuwait and Jordan have been in contact with the Iraqi authorities and others concerned to seek their assistance in the matter. The embassy of Iraq in Islamabad has also been requested to help, the Foreign Office stated.
It said according to the information received through Pakistan embassy in Kuwait so far, Aslam was working as a driver with a Kuwaiti company Mubarrad Transport. He reportedly travelled to Iraq on April 4, 2006. The company did not have definitive information on his whereabouts. “It conveyed to our embassy on May 23 that as per information provided by US army, the convoy in which Mohammad Shafique was travelling came under attack near Fallujah on April 10 and Shafique was kidnapped and “assumed dead,” the Foreign Office said.
However, it added: “This has not been confirmed and the fate of Mr Shafique is still uncertain.”
This preliminary information was conveyed to the uncle of Mr Shafique who is in Kuwait, the Foreign Office said.
“At this difficult moment, our thoughts and prayers are with Mohammad Shafique’s family,” it said.
The Foreign Office also announced that bodies of Pakistanis who lost their lives after their living quarters in a US military camp in Baghdad came under attack on May 22 would arrive in Lahore early Tuesday morning.
