Ansar Burney Trust Chairman Ansar Burney has once again requested the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres to urge upon India to immediately release Lt-Col (retd) Muhammad Habib, kidnapped by Indian agencies from Nepal.
Ansar Burney said India has always maintained strong influence in Nepal as the Himalayan country’s main economic and defence partner. Nepalese soldiers are trained in India, which also supplies arms to Nepal. Critics describe India’s relationship with Nepal as ‘semi-colonial’.
Burney said that Habib Zahir, who arrived in Nepal on a private job offer on April 6, 2017, lost contact with his family. FIR has already been lodged by the family of officer in Pakistan.
Ansar Burney said that according to the family, Lt-Col (retd) Muhammad Habib after retirement was employed in Rafhan Mills at Faisalabad. A few months ago, he posted his CV on LinkedIn and a United Nations website. In response to his CV a month ago, a man named Mark Thomson from UK contacted him through this email and on cell phone as well, stating that he has been shortlisted for the job of the vice president/zonal director. The record of the email conversation was also available with the family.
He said Habib was offered salary package of $3500-8500 per month and was asked to visit Kathmandu, Nepal, for the interview on April 6, 2017. He was sent a business class ticket from Lahore-Oman-Kathmandu by Oman Airlines. Travel records show that Habib traveled to Oman on April 5. According to family, a man named Javed Ansari received Muhammad Habib at Oman Airport from where he sent him to Nepal. After his arrival in Nepal he was kidnapped by Indian secret agency from the Nepal/India border.
Subsequent probing by his family and friends shows that the UK telephone number from which he had received telephone call for the interview was a computer-generated one, while the email domain and its associated website were registered in India. This has prompted concerns that the Indian spy agency RAW could have been behind the abduction.