Daily Times

Pakistani national Syed Farrakh Hussain Shah has gone missing in Afghan capital Kabul while heading to Hamid Karzai international airport, Pakistani embassy sources said on Monday. The embassy has approached the Afghan Foreign Ministry for the recovery of the missing Pakistani.

Shah’s company Aryan-Pakten has also registered a case with the police. However, there is no progress so far. This company installs medical equipment at hospitals across Afghanistan. Shah belongs to Lahore. The embassy in a letter to the Afghan Foreign Ministry said the Pakistani national went missing on Oct. 5 while on way to Hamid Karzai airport from his company’s office in PD-II area of Kabul. He visited Afghanistan on the invitation of the company and he proceeded to Kandahar to install stabilizer and medical equipment at a hospital in Kandahar military base.

He returned to Kabul on Oct. 4 and he was scheduled to return to Pakistan on Oct. 5. He, however, did not reach Hamid Karzai airport. Pakistani embassy has requested the Afghan foreign ministry to approach the concerned authorities to establish whereabouts of Shah and inform the embassy of the outcome as soon as possible. The company in police report says that Shah left for airport in a taxi but did not reach airport.

Sources say officials of the Pakistani embassy have sought a meeting with the Afghan authorities to discuss the case. There was no immediate comment from Afghan officials. Afghan embassy sources say they are unaware of the incident.

Motives behind the incident are not clear. No group claimed responsibility. In June 2017, two diplomatic officials of the Pakistani consulate in the eastern city of Jalalabad had been kidnapped while returning to Pakistan by road. Both officials were freed after nearly 12 days in captivity.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead Nayyar Iqbal Rana, assistant private secretary at the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad outside his residence in Jalalabad in November 2017.