ISLAMABAD: Afghanis­tan’s provincial deputy governor Qazi Mohammad Nabi Ahmadi, who was kidnapped from Peshawar in October, has quietly retur­ned home after being recovered from the abductors.

It is unclear how Mr Ahmadi’s release materialised. However, his brother Habibullah, who too had been kidnapped, still remains missing.

Mr Ahmadi’s recovery was confirmed by Afghanis­tan’s deputy ambassador in Isla­mabad Zardasht Shams, who told media outlets that Mr Ahmadi had been reunited with his family in Kunar.

Talking to BBC Pashto in Kunar, Mr Ahmadi said he did not know about his kidnappers and their motives.

Some media reports claimed that he had been released in Afghanistan.

Mr Ahmadi was kidnapped while visiting Peshawar secretly for medical treatment on an ordinary passport. The local law enforcement agencies at that time did not even know about his visit, until his abduction was reported by his relatives and the Afghan consulate in Peshawar took up the matter with Pakistani authorities.

Mr Ahmadi is a leader of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-i-Islami, which signed a peace deal with the Afghan government in September 2016.

No group claimed responsibility for Mr Ahmadi’s kidnapping. However, it was being speculated that the incident could be linked to political rivalry or an operation against the militant Islamic State group taking place in Kunar.

The kidnappers of Mr Ahmadi had earlier demanded ransom, but it was unclear if it was paid or not.

A former governor of Afghanistan’s Herat province was also kidnapped from Islamabad in 2016; and was later recovered by police from Mardan district.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2018