Minister, IGP deny abduction of Afghan envoy’s daughter
Rashid says it is an international racket led by a spy agency to defame Pakistan; US peace envoy visits Islamabad as Pak-afghan relations sour
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid has denied the abduction of the daughter of Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad, saying it was an international racket led by Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to defame Pakistan.
Later during the day, Islamabad police have also said that they found no evidence that the daughter of Afghanistan ambassador was kidnapped.
Meanwhile, Washington’s point man in talks aimed at ending decades of war in Afghanistan made a brief visit on Monday to Pakistan as relations between Islamabad and Kabul reached a new low.
Zalmay Khalilzad’s visit came just hours ater Afghanistan withdrew its ambassador from Pakistan late Sunday ater the diplomat’s daughter was brutally atacked last week. The US envoy met Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa but nothing was immediately known of their discussions.
Thegovernmenthasalsocalledbackthepakistani ambassador to Afghanistan for “consultations” regarding the alleged abduction and release of the Afghan envoy’s daughter in Islamabad, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Monday.
According to the FO, Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul Mansoor Ahmad Khan arrived in Islamabad late on Sunday.
Addressing a press conference, flanked by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf, in Islamabad, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Qazi Jameel-ur Rehman said that the authorities have formed several teams to probe the mater.
“We used our all resources for the investigation… and supported all law enforcement agencies,” said the Islamabad IGP said .
Jameel said the purported abduction of Afghan envoy’s daughter was a complete “blind case” and they collected data of around 300 CCTV cameras installed in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
The IGP said police had collected the footages of all places visited by the envoy’s daughter.
As per police investigation, her abduction has not been proven yet, he maintained.
Ambassador Najibullah Alikhil’s daughter, Silsila Alikhil, was allegedly kidnapped on Friday from Islamabad’s Blue Area by unidentified persons, who also subjected her to torture. She was returning home in the aternoon in a taxi ater visiting a bakery when the driver picked up another man, who verbally abused and assaulted her. She was later dropped in an unconscious condition by the taxi driver on a roadside.
Rashid told a TV channel that the investigation carried out so far had not shown that the woman was abducted. “There has been no kidnapping,” he said. “I want to tell the entire nation, this is an international racket, an international conspiracy, this is the agenda of RAW,” he added, saying the Indian intelligence agency had propagated the impression of her abduction across the world.
The minister said the woman hired a taxi at Khadda Market, “then she heads to Daman-e-koh in a second cab, and subsequently hires a third taxi from F-9 park, but she is refusing to accept that she visited Rawalpindi.” He added that Silsila also used the internet ater reaching Daman-e-koh.
“There is just one patch let in our investigation. We have found three taxis involved in the incident. Thewomanreacheddaman-e-kohfromrawalpindi but skipped stopping midway at her residence. We are just trying to find another footage of her movement from Rawalpindi,” he added.
The minister said this was the first incident of its kind in Pakistan. “Everything will be clear the moment we discover the fourth footage,” he added.
Rashid said the ambassador’s daughter gave her mobile phone to authorities ater erasing all records, but the government was extending all-out cooperation to her. “But some people are doing propaganda in the direction of Indian agency RAW,” he added.
The minister said that the taxi drivers who drove the daughter of the Afghan ambassador before her alleged brief abduction have been interrogated and a first information report has been registered.
Khalilzad arrived in Islamabad from Qatar where the Taliban and Afghan government representatives have held two days of talks that ended late on Sunday, with a promise by the warring sides to meet again.
Khalilzad had expressed hope that the sides would agree even to a temporary truce — to mark the most important Islamic holiday, Eid Al Adha, which begins on Tuesday.