Speculation abounds as officials say anyone could be involved in the kidnapping – criminal gangs, Afghan Taliban, TTP or even Afghan intelligence service
Five days after the mysterious ‘abduction’ of a former Afghan governor from Islamabad, the law enforcement agencies are yet to make a headway into the whereabouts of former Herat governor Fazlullah Wahidi as no group has claimed responsibility or sought ransom, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.
Sources in the government say that after an initial success in the investigation, the law enforcement agencies are now stuck in a rut as no further leads are available to locate his whereabouts.
Police and intelligence agencies launched an investigation to find and retrieve the former Afghan official.
Wahidi, a former governor of Afghan provinces of Kunnar and Herat went missing on Friday evening from a market in Islamabad. Media reports said Wahidi arrived in Islamabad along with his family to seek visa for a trip to United Kingdom. He was abducted from a busy market in the capital. No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
A well placed official privy to the details of the investigation told this scribe that the police and secret agencies were under immense pressure to trace the whereabouts of Wahidi.
“Wahidi was a controversial politician in Afghanistan. He could have been targeted by criminal gangs for ransom. Moreover, we cannot rule out abduction by Afghan Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as he had acrimonious relations with both,” the official added.
The official said that even the Afghan intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS) can abduct him to place the blame on Pakistan as no one knew of his arrival other than the Afghan government.
“NDS has conducted some operations inside Pakistan before with the help of local criminal gangs like TTP,” the official said and added that the law enforcing agencies were investigating the matter with an ‘open mind’, without ruling out any possibility.
Diplomatic sources believe Wahidi’s mysterious disappearance can badly affect Islamabad’s efforts for the Afghan peace process.
“This kidnapping looks to be part of a plot to sabotage the extraordinary improvement we have recently seen in the relations between Pakistan and Afghan governments. It looks like the Afghan secret service may be behind this abduction,” a diplomatic source said.
Afghan affairs expert Brig. (r) Mehmood Shah says that the abduction incident showed that Afghan warlords were now using Pakistani soil to fight their battles.
“First question I would like to ask from the Afghan government is that what was Wahidi doing in Islamabad without informing the Pakistani authorities? Had he sought a visa before entering Pakistan?” Brig Mehmood Shah questioned.
Shah, who served as secretary FATA secretariat, says that it was time for the government to deport all Afghan migrants who were involved in terrorism and other related crimes on the Pakistani soil.
“Enough is enough now and we need to take practical steps to end the criminal ventures of Afghan migrants in Pakistan. The government must take steps to send back the Afghan migrants to their own country. Visa desks should be established at Torkhum and Chaman borders and no Afghan national should be allowed to enter Pakistan without a visa,” Mehmood Shah added.
Asked whether or not the abduction reflected some covert operation to sabotage the trust building process between Dr Ashraf Ghani’s government and Islamabad, Shah said that Afghan intelligence was a major stumbling block in the way.
“You see how former Afghan intelligence chief Rehmatullah Nabil resigned recently as the Afghan peace process gathered momentum? NDS itself is a major hurdle in way of peace,” he added.
Former ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand said that Islamabad needed to resolve the mystery surrounding Wahidi’s disappearance.
“The government must understand that this incident can harm the Afghan peace process. Pakistan authorities have promised to recover him soon, but we don’t know how much time it would take. Any delay in Wahidi’s recovery will create doubts,” he added.
As governor, Wahidi was extremely critical of Pakistan’s policies towards Afghanistan. After serving for years as governor of Kunar, Wahidi was named the governor of the Herat province by the then Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
President Ashraf Ghani, however, removed Wahidi from office as part of his efforts to improve provincial governance. Afghanistan’s Kunar province borders Pakistan, while Herat borders Iran.
