Ex-Afghan governor recovered two weeks after abduction

Fazlullah Wahidi was seized in Islamabad, found in Mardan

PESHAWAR: Two weeks after his abduction in Islamabad, senior Afghan politician and former governor Syed Fazlullah Wahidi was recovered in the early hours of Friday from Mardan after hectic efforts by Pakistani authorities. A person no less than President Ashraf Ghani had demanded his recovery.

Pakistani officials said Wahidi was recovered from a car on the Mardan-Swabi Road near the village of Ismaila located in the limits of the Kalu Khan police station at around midnight. “In a joint operation conducted by the police and intelligence agencies, the car was intercepted, the three kidnappers were seized and Fazlullah Wahidi was recovered. The kidnappers had put a chaddar on his head to hide his identity,” Saeed Khan Wazir, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mardan Region, told The News.

He said Wahidi was later in the night brought to his office in Mardan city, served tea and then taken to Peshawar. He said the kidnappers would be interrogated to find out their identity and motives. “He was feeling uncomfortable but expressed his gratitude to us for getting him recovered,” senior cop Saeed Wazir added.

Later, the Afghan Consulate in Peshawar shared a photo of Wahidi and Consul General Dr Abdullah Waheed Pohan on Facebook to announce his recovery. The silver-haired Wahidi was smiling and looked alright. His son, Naimat Wahidi was quoted as saying that he spoke to his father on phone and found out that he hadn’t suffered any injuries but was feeling tired.

The three kidnappers, who reportedly included an Afghan and Pakistanis who appeared to be militants, were using the cover of darkness to shift Wahidi from somewhere in the Punjab to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and then apparently to Fata and Afghanistan. Officials who are following the case said the car in which he was being smuggled had started the journey from Fatehjang and entered Swabi and was heading for Mardan.

It is possible that Wahidi was kept in and around Fatehjang since his kidnapping from near the Rana Market in Islamabad’s F/7 Sector on February 12. They were probably waiting for an opportune time to shift him out of Punjab to a secure place in KP or Fata before planning their next move.

Under pressure from Kabul and anxious to improve relations with Afghanistan, the Pakistan government had mounted a major effort to locate and recover Wahidi. “All the roads leading out of Islamabad and its surroundings were being monitored. The road to Khushalgarh and onwards to Kohat and also those heading to Mianwali, Chashma, Swabi and Peshawar were under watch. It was a major and collective effort and we were finally able to recover him safely,” an official said.

Wahidi’s son-in-law Syed Ikram, who is a member of Afghanistan’s parliament and is presently on a visit to Pakistan with a parliamentary delegation headed by Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, told the media that his father-in-law will soon be meeting Afghan Ambassador Omar Zakhilwal in Islamabad.

Wahidi was abducted while walking with his 12-year-old grandson to a restaurant from the guesthouse where he was staying in Islamabad. The police said at the time that unidentified men in two vehicles seized him and sped away.

The 65-year-old Wahidi had come to Islamabad to apply for the UK visa at the British High Commission because the British Embassy in Kabul doesn’t issue visas. Wahidi’s abduction prompted former president Hamid Karzai and many other Afghans to demand that the British Embassy in Kabul should start issuing visas to prevent such incidents in future.

No group claimed responsibility for abducting Wahidi. Until the identity of the kidnappers is established, speculations will continue.

Following the abduction and after Wahidi’s recovery, some Afghan officials and analysts were suspecting the hand of Pakistani intelligence agencies in the incident. Wahidi hasn’t spoken publicly yet and much now depends on his interpretation of the incident and the identity of the kidnappers.

Some Afghan analysts reminded that Wahidi as the governor of Kunar province some years ago had been extremely critical of Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan. They felt this could be the reason of his abduction in Pakistan. However, they were unable to substantiate their claim.

Wahidi, who belongs to the eastern Nangarhar province, lived for many years in Peshawar and ran a non-governmental organisation during the period of the Afghan jihad against the Soviet forces. While living in Pakistan and later in Afghanistan, he headed the Afghan NGO Coordination Bureau (ANCB), which has more than 270 NGOs as members.

Wahidi was part of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan led by the mujahideen leader Pir Syed Ahmad Gilani, who is presently the head of the Afghan High Peace Council. Wahidi until recently served as the governor of Herat province.

President Ashraf Ghani replaced him and many other governors in a bid to improve governance and bring his own nominees into important leadership positions.