ISLAMABAD, 18 May 2008 — Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan returned home safely yesterday following his release after being held captive for 96 days by suspected Taleban militants, officials said.
Tariq Azizuddin was heading to the Afghan capital Kabul on Feb. 11 with his driver and bodyguard when he disappeared in the troubled Khyber tribal district bordering Afghanistan.
Relatives, friends and media thronged the 56-year-old ambassador’s residence in Rawalpindi after he was flown in by a special flight from Peshawar.
The ambassador’s release comes amid recent headway made in peace talks between the “Pakistani Taleban” and the six-week-old coalition government led by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Interior Ministry adviser Rehman Malik denied any deal had been struck to get the envoy back. “We have exchanged no one, and released no one to secure his release,” he told reporters, rejecting suggestions the ambassador was released after the government freed dozens of Taleban fighters. “His release on Friday evening is purely a result of law enforcement efforts,” Malik told reporters, standing beside the envoy who had grown a long beard and appeared exhausted.
Taleban sources, however, were quoted by news agencies as saying the envoy had been handed over to security agency officials in the tribal area after the government released some 12 people in its custody earlier this week.
Azizuddin told a local television channel that he was driven by his captors for three hours and dropped off outside a paramilitary camp in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. “I just walked in and introduced myself and from there I was brought to Rawalpindi,” he told Dawn News.
Azizuddin said he was kidnapped on the Peshawar-Landikotal road while en route to Kabul. “On that day, there was no Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight. Therefore, we decided to drive to Kabul... While traveling on the Peshawar-Landikotal road about 16 militants, armed with arms including suicide jackets, kidnapped us.” Azizuddin said after traveling for 10 hours, they were taken to a place and then moved three times to different places during their captivity.
The envoy said he was thankful to God and praised the efforts of the government to secure his freedom. “I am thankful to Allah and the government of Pakistan and very happy to be back in life with my family.”
He said he was treated well during his captivity. “When they kidnapped us, I was hit twice in the head with a rifle but afterward they gave me food and a place to sleep. The kidnappers thought that I was a big fish and a foreigner.”
The freed envoy said his kidnappers had been upset in the last few days due to the efforts being made by the law enforcement agencies in the area where they were being kept.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed that Azizuddin’s driver and bodyguard were also safe.
As part of the ongoing peace process, the authorities last month, according to an official, also released some 30 tribesmen held in various prisons in return for the release of 55 soldiers detained by pro-Taleban militants.
— Additional input from agencies
