Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The deputy governor of Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, Qazi Mohammad Nabi Ahmadi, who was kidnapped from Peshawar in October, has been released, Afghan deputy ambassador Zardasht Shams said on Friday.

Shams told Daily Times that Ahmadi had rejoined his family in Kunar. He, however, said that Ahmadi’s brother, Habibullah, who was also picked hours after his abduction, had not yet been freed. The diplomat did not provide more details.

Ahmadi told the BBC Pashto in Kunar that he did not know who was behind his kidnapping and what had been their motives.

Afghan media reported that the deputy governor, who is a member of Hizb-e-Islami of Gulbadin Hekmatyar, has been rescued from his kidnappers after three months in captivity.

Unidentified men kidnapped the Afghan official from Peshawar’s Dabgari garden area on October 28 when he was scheduled to visit doctor.

No group had claimed responsibility for his kidnapping and it still remains a mystery.

Afghan sources told Daily Times the deputy governor was freed in Kunar. They also said family of the kidnapped official was also approached for ransom. However, it was unclear if the ransom had been paid.

Pajhwok Afghan News quoted Abdul Ghani Musamim, the Kunar governor’s spokesman, as saying that Ahmadi was freed Thursday night. However, he did not give further details.

Habibullah and the Afghan officials at the consulate in Peshawar had registered a case with the police. However, police had not reported any progress until his appearance in Kunar late Thursday.

The Afghan Embassy had also been in contact with the Foreign Office.

Kidnappings of officials in both countries have now become a routine.

Last year in February, unidentified men had kidnapped Afghanistan’s former governor of Kunar and Herat provinces Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi from Islamabad. He was rescued after two weeks after a shootout between police and his captors in Mardan. No group claimed responsibility for the abduction of Fazalullah Wahidi, who had been very close to former Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

Abdul Khaliq Farahi, ambassador-designate to Pakistan, had been kidnapped from Peshawar in 2008 and freed after two years in 2010.

In mid-June last year, two officials of the Pakistani consulate in Afghanistan’s eastern Jalalabad were kidnapped while coming to Pakistan by road. They were released in late July.

In November, a Pakistani diplomatic official Nayyar Iqbl Rana was shot and killed by unknown gunmen near his residence in Jalalabad. There is no progress in investigation into his murder.

In early December, the Pakistan Army recovered a Pakistani engineer Malik Faiz Ahmed, a resident of Rawalpindi, who had been kidnapped in Afghanistan. Ahmed, who had been working on the Torkham-Jalalabad Road project, had been abducted in Afghanistan on August 21. Reports earlier suggested that Faiz was kidnapped for ransom and his captors had demanded $1 million.

Afghan security officials had allegedly picked two staffers of Pakistan Embassy in Kabul in May last year from a shop. They were freed after hours of detention.

Published in Daily Times, January 6^th 2018.