In the wrong place at the wrong time
Both Afghan officials and militant leaders have frequently met their destiny on the road they have taken to avoid it. They have been kidnapped or killed in Peshawar and other towns in Pakistan which are supposed to be safer and securer than Kabul. Their local rivals often follow them where they are least suspected to be on the prowl. In April Afghan Taliban official Maulvi Daud was killed by an IS militant. This was obviously a continuation of the fighting between the two ferocious terrorist networks in Afghanistan. What is disturbing is that both the victim and the predator somehow managed to cross over into Pakistan illegally. In May Haji Mohammad Farid’s bullet-riddled body was found outside a mosque on the outskirts of Peshawar. The victim was Gulbadin Hekmetyar’s personal secretary. He was presumably killed by dissidents who were unhappy over their leader joining hands with the Kabul government.
Afghan officials are kidnapped on account of several motives that include extraction of ransom and revenge. In February last year former Afghan governor of Herat was kidnapped from Islamabad. Pakistan’s government at the highest level worked hard to recover him. He was freed by police after a shootout with kidnappers at Mardan within two weeks.
The case of Deputy Governor Kunar Muhammad Nabi Ahmadi who was abducted from Peshawar on Friday is both complicated and instructive. Ahmadi presumably crossed over to Pakistan without a visa. He had more than one enemy with a motive to extract revenge from him. Kunar where he occupied a high government office is infested with several terrorist groups whose hideouts were bombarded by the US and raided by the Afghan security forces. As he was associated with Hekmatyar’s party, he too could have been targeted by party dissidents. That Ahmadi could cross over into Pakistan illegally, reaching Peshawar without being caught anywhere on the way raises questions about the efficiency of the border checkposts and pickets inside the tribal area. Unless those manning border entry points and pickets are made to work efficiently, illegal Afghan entrants including terrorists would continue to reach the cities in Pakistan.