LANDI KOTAL, Feb 14: As search continued for Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin who went missing in Khyber Agency on Monday, the political administration launched a crackdown on the agency’s Jandakhel tribe.

Officials, meanwhile, said the administration had found a clue that could lead to the recovery of the diplomat, his driver and a security guard.

An official said 11 people of the tribe had been arrested and five vehicles impounded under the territorial responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation. He said the men had gone missing in the area of the tribe.

NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani told journalists in Peshawar that the scope of the search operation had been extended to the entire area and several teams had been constituted.

He said there were speculations that the kidnappers might have shifted the ambassador to Orakzai Agency.

Officials in Khyber Agency said the diplomat was possibly still their area although they had claimed that his vehicle was last seen in Orakzai Agency.

“The Jandakhel tribe has been targeted because some of its elders disappeared after the abduction of Ambassador Azizuddin,” an official said. “This aroused suspicion about their possible involvement in the kidnapping.”

Jandakhel tribesmen blocked the Peshawar-Torkham highway for about one hour in protest against the arrests.