- FO urges Afghan authorities to ensure recovery of missing Pakistanis
Two officials working at Pakistan’s Consulate in Jalalabad area have reportedly gone missing on their journey from Afghanistan to Pakistan.
In a press statement on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the officials have been missing since June 16 while they were commuting to Pakistan by road. The officials, identified as Jan Khan and Muhammad Ejaz, have neither crossed over to Pakistan nor are they reachable on their mobile phones, the Foreign Office confirmed.
“Our government is in constant touch with Afghanistan authorities over the matter,” the statement said. The Foreign Office said that the Afghan authorities have informed that all efforts were in hand to probe the incident and three distinct investigating groups have been constituted to ensure safe recovery of the officials.
Pakistan has requested the Afghan government to ensure the early recovery of the officials and bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice, it said. Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar province, is a busy trading hub about 70 kilometres from the main border crossing with Pakistan, from which landlocked Afghanistan imports much of its goods.
Attaullah Khogiani, a spokesman for Nangarhar province, told a foreign media that local authorities have launched a search operation in the areas along the Jalalabad-Torkham road. It is unclear whether the officials were kidnapped or not. However, the Islamic State and Taliban militants are active in different areas of Nangarhar.
