TOKYO, Aug 26: Two Japanese teachers have been missing in Pakistan and Afghanistan since arriving there on holidays three weeks ago, authorities said on Friday. The man and a woman arrived in Karachi on Aug 6 and shortly afterward contacted their families in Hiroshima for the first and last time, officials said.

“Our staff in Islamabad and Karachi confirmed that two people entered Afghanistan but we don’t know where they are now,” said Yuji Yamamoto, an official at the Japanese foreign ministry.

From hotel records, Japanese authorities learned the couple headed to Quetta near the Afghan border a day after arriving in Karachi.

They were due to return to Japan on Aug 19 but did not, leading their families to ask the government for help.

The families requested the schoolteachers’ names not be revealed.

Japanese press reports said the man was in his 40s and the woman in her 30s.

Japan, a close US ally, discourages its citizens from visiting Pakistan and Afghanistan due to safety concerns.

Al-Qaeda militants have repeatedly threatened Japan and in October last year beheaded a 24-year-old Japanese tourist who was abducted in Iraq.—AFP