ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: The whereabouts of two missing Japanese teachers are still unknown and efforts have been stepped up to find them. The two went missing after checking out from a hotel in Quetta on Aug 8. They had their seats booked on Aug 18 from Lahore on a flight for Japan did not turn up at the airport.

Sources in the Japanese embassy said the Pakistani and Afghan border authorities had been contacted as the missing man and woman reportedly planned to go to Bamyan. Pakistani authorities have informed the Japanese embassy that the two crossed the Chaman border on Aug 8.

Their photographs taken before they crossed the border have been sent to the embassy.

The sources said the Japanese embassy in Kabul was also in touch with the Afghan government and efforts were being made to check the record of hotels in Kandahar to ascertain if they reached there but no useful information was available yet.

The teachers were serving at a municipal school in Onomichi in Japan.