Cops probe missing link in kidnap case

Interior minister confident of breakthrough in the investigation soon

Pakistan police and law enforcement agencies are investigating all aspects of the kidnapping of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter in Islamabad and the culprits will be arrested soon, Pakistan Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid said yesterday.

Ambassador Najibullah Alikhil’s daughter, Silsila, was abducted from the federal capital’s commercial hub by unidentified people on Friday and subjected to torture. The 26-year-old was held for several hours before being released.

While giving details at a press conference, he said the Afghan ambassador’s daughter had walked from her home to a market. “From the market, she took a taxi,” he disclosed. “We were able to know about this with the help of the Safe City Cameras. We also have footage of her getting out of a taxi at a Rawalpindi shopping mall,” he added. Rashid said she then took a third taxi to reach Daman-e-Koh, a tourist point in Margalla Hills.

PM directs police

A day earlier Prime Minister Imran Khan had directed the police and the LEA to utilise all resources and apprehend the people involved in the kidnapping of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter. “The only missing link in the investigation is how she reached Daman-e-Koh from Rawalpindi,” he added.

The minister said authorities have also interrogated the driver of the third taxi that the ambassador’s daughter used to commute, adding that she could have gone straight to her residence in Sector F-6 but instead chose to go to F-9 Park in Islamabad.

Rashid said the government registered an FIR against the kidnapping at 2am, as per Imran Khan’s directives.