ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: The Afghan embassy in Islamabad on Monday strongly refuted reports of Afghan Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakil’s defection and arrival in the federal capital.

The acting Afghan envoy, Sohail Shaheen, when asked for confirmation, told Dawn that the report was baseless and that Mutawakil had not arrived here at all. When probed about his whereabouts, Shaheen said he might be in the hideout somewhere as the others were.

Foreign office spokesman also rebutted the report of Mutawakil’s arrival and holding of talks with foreign office officials and described it as mere ‘speculation’ on which no comments could be offered.

About the visit of Afghan ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, who had left the capital for Kandhar via Quetta on Saturday, Shaheen said, “he was expected back in the next couple of days”.

He, however, expressed his inability to reveal the exact destination of Zaeef nor could he disclose the purpose of his rushing back home.

It may be mentioned that two conflicting reports had appeared in a section of the press, one suggesting that the Afghan foreign minister had arrived in Islamabad to hold talks with Pakistani officials while the other said he had defected and was here to negotiate as representative of a rebel Taliban group for a broad-based government in Afghanistan.

Yet another report had said that the Taliban regime minister had fled to Dubai. Earlier, speculations spoke of Afghan foreign minister’s arrival, but the officials continued to refute them.