PESHAWAR, Dec 15: A Libyan national taken into custody by the local police has been missing under mysterious circumstances.

The police have now expressed ignorance regarding his whereabouts and for the last one month his family members have been looking for him.

The missing Libyan, Faraj Younas, has been married to a Pakistani female and is having three children from her. He was released from Central Prison here after a local court allowed his bail petition on Oct 22. From the entrance of the prison he was picked by officials of East Cantt Police Station. Later on, he was handed over to a sensitive intelligence agency, following which his whereabouts are not known.

According to his documents submitted before a local court he came to Pakistan in 1987. He claimed that his father was a colonel in Libya, but as he was having ideological differences with his government, he (Faraj) came to Pakistan.

He claimed that he was engaged in honey business in Pakistan. He married a Pakistani girl belonging to Ahmadkhel village of Peshawar on May 4, 1990. He went to Libya along with his family in 1992, but returned back on April 25, 1994.

The crimes investigation department picked him from his residence at Faqirabad on June 26 and was booked under section 16 of Foreigners Act. Initially, his bail application was rejected by the court of local magistrate as well as additional district and sessions judge as due to an amendment in the Foreigners Act a person entering illegally into Pakistan is not entitled to bail.

Later, the court of additional sessions judge, Azeem Khan Afridi, granted him bail when his family proved that his entry into the country was not illegal.

Central Prison sources said a number of other Arab nationals detained in the prison went missing in the same fashion. An official claimed an intelligence agency picked them from the entrance of the prison on different occasions, following which they went missing.

He said they were told that those Arabs were deported, but their Pakistani companions suspected that they were either killed or sent somewhere else.