February 24, 2008	Sunday	Safar 16, 1429

LANDI KOTAL, Feb 23: Authorities in Khyber Agency have failed to find any clue to the whereabouts of missing Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin despite a lapse of two weeks.

The local administration held a meeting with the elders and councilors of Jandakhel tribe to seek their help in the recovery of the kidnapped envoy. The tribal elders sought a three-day time from the administration to discuss the issue and evolve a strategy to locate the envoy.

The administration had earlier arrested at least 10 Jandakhel tribesmen and impounded five of their vehicles under the collective and territorial responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

The envoy to Kabul along with his personal body guard and driver went missing on February 11, while on their way to Kabul via Torkhum border. Quoting un-named eye witnesses, local officials said that a group of masked men abducted the three men at gunpoint from the main Peshawar-Torkhum Highway near Ali Masjid in Jamrud tehsil.

Tariq Azizuddin along with his body guard and driver had left Peshawar at around 10:30 am on Monday (February 11) for Torkhum.

He lost contact with the employees of the embassy minutes after his departure from Peshawar. The embassy employees, who were waiting at the Afghan side of Torkhum border, then informed the Pakistani officials at the border about the mysterious disappearance of Tariq Azizuddin. Khyber Agency political administration however, insisted that they were not informed about traveling plans of the ambassador.

An extensive search operation was launched by the local authorities immediately after they were informed about the abduction of the ambassador on the evening of February 11.

Again while quoting local eye witnesses, officials insisted on the next day of the incidence that the three abducted men were seen riding in two vehicles crossing over to Orakzai Agency via Tirah Valley on the day of their abduction. However, Orakzai political administration denied presence of the missing men and their abductors on ‘their soil’.

The Khyber Agency political administration arrested at least ten members of the Khasadar force posted at Lakarh Baba checkpoint for negligence from their duty as officials believed that the kidnappers along with the abducted men crossed the said checkpoint on their way to undisclosed destination.

The local administration had temporarily suspended its search operation as most of the Khasadar and Levies personnel were deployed at various polling stations for the February 18 general elections.