KARACHI: Nepalese autho­rities said on Wednesday that they were trying to ascertain the identity of a man who had received retired Col Habib Zahir upon his arrival at Bhairahawa Airport in the town of Lumbini near the Indian border.

“We can confirm that Col Habib reached Bhairahawa airport from Kathmandu and, according to the CCTV footage, he disembarked from the plane with his hand luggage and a backpack,” a Nepal police official told BBC Nepali. “He was received by an unknown man with whom he spoke a few words and then both of them left.”

Mr Zahir’s photographs and the footage had been shown to taxi drivers and other transport operators at Bhairahawa Airport.

Nepal’s home ministry spokesperson Bal Krishna Panthi said that so far the special bureau of the police had found no clue. “We don’t know as to why he went to Lumbini and what was the purpose of his visit to Nepal. There was no reservation in any of Lumbini hotels in his name last Thursday.”

The police said that they were collecting information about the phone calls of Mr Zahir.

Col Zahir, who retired from the army in 2014, went missing on April 6 from Lumbini, a Buddhist pilgrimage site close to the Indian border, where he arrived after somebody by the name of Mark Thompson had contacted him via email and telephone for a job interview in Nepal.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2017