RAWALPINDI: The police have widened the search for the 36-year-old Chinese engineer who went missing on Dec 20 while working on the Karot Power Project in Kahuta.

A senior police official who is part of the investigation told Dawn that Pingzhi Liu’s mother, who lives in China, was informed about her son’s disappearance and that she said he had not come back nor was he seen in his home town.

He said Mr Liu, who is divorced, lived with his mother and nine-year-old daughter. The family could not provide any information which could help the investigation.

Mr Liu went missing while working on a tunnel connected to a river in Kahuta. The Special Protection Unit, Special Security Division, police and intelligence officials have been questioning his colleagues.

“His mobile phone has been switched off since he went missing and his colleagues and family members have not been contacted for ransom so it does not seem like a kidnapping,” he said, adding that divers could not find him in the river and sniffer dogs do not go out of his workplace which indicates that he left on a vehicle.

Airport authorities have also been alerted though they say no such person has left the country so far.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2018