QUETTA: The vice chancellor and pro-vice chancellor of the University of Gwadar, who had left Balochistan’s port city for Quetta, have gone missing, officials told Dawn on Thursday.

Vice Chancellor Dr Abdul Razzaq Sabir and Pro-Vice Chancellor Syed Manzoor Ahmed have been missing for the past 24 hours, the officials said on Thursday afternoon.

Babar Yousafzai, an aide at the Balochistan Home Department, said Dr Sabir and Ahmed had left for Quetta along with a driver and another varsity employee on Wednesday morning.

“But they have not reached Quetta so far,” he added.

The official further said the travellers’ mobile phones had been switched off after they reached Mastung.

“All efforts are under way to trace the vice chancellor, pro-vice chancellor and two others traveling them,” Yousafzai said.

Meanwhile, police officials in Mastung told Dawn that the possibility of kidnapping could not be ruled out.

A senior police official also said that there had been no communication with Dr Sabir and Ahmed had ended while they were travelling on the Quetta-Karachi National Highway near the Khud-Kocha area of Mastung.

The official said that “security forces and district administration were jointly making efforts to trace the four missing people, and a search operation is under way in the area”.