Police recover kidnapped Afghan politician in Mardan

Author: Staff Report

PESHAWAR: A former Afghan governor kidnapped nearly two weeks ago in Islamabad was freed on Friday after a shootout with police in Mardan, he told the media, saying he could not identify the men who abducted him.

Wahidi, who served as governor of Afghanistan’s Kunar and Herat provinces, said he was blindfolded and being transported by his kidnappers when they were stopped at a police checkpoint in Mardan.

Gunfire rang out, he said, and the three men holding him at the time ran away.

Speaking from the Afghan consulate in Peshawar, he said he did not know who snatched him from an Islamabad neighbourhood on Feb 12.

“The kidnappers did not talk about their demands and they did not put me in contact with my family,” he said. He said they had treated him well, adding they had not tortured him and fed him regularly. Wahidi said he planned to fly to Kabul later on Friday.

Wahidi was taken to various places after his abduction, Afghan Consul General Dr Abdullah Waheed Pohan said.

The consul general said he received a call from Mardan police early on Friday and was informed that Wahidi had been recovered in the area after an encounter.

Wahidi was taken to the Afghan consulate in Peshawar at 4am. “He is fine physically but has been mentally disturbed,” Pohan said of the ex-governor.

A senior local police official said on condition of anonymity that police had secured Wahidi’s release early on Friday, but said he could give no further details about the kidnappers’ identity or whether a ransom was paid.

A senior diplomat in the Afghan consulate in Peshawar, Muhammad Wali Sultani, confirmed Wahidi was handed over to them early on Friday. A statement from the Afghan foreign ministry on Friday said it “appreciates” Pakistan’s efforts in freeing Wahidi, adding it “considers cooperation on such issues between both countries as necessary”. Afghanistan’s foreign ministry had earlier summoned Pakistan’s ambassador to express “serious concerns” over Wahidi’s abduction and urged Islamabad to throw all its resources to find him.