Kabul asked to help recover two Pak diplomats: FO

PESHAWAR: Two Pakistani diplomatic staff members of its Consulate General in Afghanistan went missing on June 16, 2017, while coming to Pakistan by road.

Nafees Zakariya, the spokesman for Foreign Office in Islamabad, told The News that two diplomatic members of Pakistan's Consulate General were based in Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Afghanistan's volatile Nangarhar province. "Two officials of our Consulate General Jalalabad have been missing since June 16, 2017 while commuting to Pakistan by road. The matter has been raised with the relevant Afghan authorities for their safety and recovery, at the earliest," the spokesman said.

He said that the Afghan government had been informed about the incident and their authorities were now making all efforts for their safe recovery. The Afghan government has reportedly decided to probe the incident and has already constituted three distinct investigating groups to ensure safe recovery of the two missing Pakistani officials.

Nafees Zakariya said Pakistan had requested the Afghan government that all efforts might be made to ensure early recovery of the officials and bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice.

"We are in constant touch with the Afghan authorities in this regard to ensure safe recovery of our two officials," said the official. According to other Pakistani officials, the two officials didn't reach the Torkham border, a crossing point between the two countries, after they left the consulate general on Friday. “They went missing between Jalalabad and Torkham and are believed to be on the Afghan soul," said one government official in the Khyber tribal region that shares its long border with the Nangarhar province.

There are speculations that they could have been picked up by the Afghan security agents or militant groups fighting against Pakistan. The News has received the names of the two missing officials but didn't publish on personal request of Pakistani officials, saying it might hurt their families.

A section of the Afghan media quoting Afghan security officials reported that three Pakistani officials had gone missing. The two missing officials were working in Pakistan's Consulate General in Afghanistan's eastern troubled city of Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar province, also known as the stronghold of Islamic State militants and Pakistani and Afghan Taliban.

It is same area where the Pakistani ambassador in Afghanistan was kidnapped by Taliban a few years ago and then freed after Pakistan released dozen of members of Pakistani and Afghan Taliban. No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for their kidnapping.