Pakistan Hunts for Missing Diplomat

Ambassador to Afghanistan feared kidnapped near border
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 12, 2008 9:20 AM CST
Pakistan Hunts for Missing Diplomat
Ron Hoffmann, a Canadian diplomat sits next to an empty chair placed for Pakistan's Ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin during an Afghan education development seminar at the foreign ministery in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008. Security forces were searching for Azizuddin on Tuesday...   (Associated Press)

Pakistani officials are hunting for their ambassador to neighboring Afghanistan, and the country's president believes he was abducted, Reuters reports. "The Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan has been kidnapped while traveling to Afghanistan," Hamid Karzai said. The diplomat went missing yesterday while traveling through the Khyber Pass, a region notorious for its smugglers and bandits.

Tariq Azizuddin was en route from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar to Kabul when he and his bodyguard and driver disappeared before reaching the border. A spokesman said the interior ministry is hopeful searchers will "trace and recover him soon." The Khyber tribal region, one of Pakistan's most dangerous areas, is relatively free of al-Qaeda and Taliban influence. (More Afghanistan stories.)

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