ISLAMABAD, June 18: Pakistan has urged the Afghan government to ensure early recovery of the officials of its Jalalabad Consulate General who went missing while coming to their country on Friday.
In a statement, Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said that Islamabad is in constant touch with Afghan authorities for safe recovery of two officials.
“Two officials of our Consulate General Jalalabad are missing since 16th June 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 Foreign Office said in a statement on Sunday.
The Afghan authorities have informed that all efforts were in hand to probe the incident and three distinct investigating groups have been constituted to ensure safe recovery of the officials,†the statement added.
The incident came days after a visit by UN chief Antonio Guterres to war-torn Afghanistan.
The foreign ministry did not speculate who may be behind the disappearances but various Afghan militant groups have targeted diplomats in the past.
It is yet not clear if the two diplomats have been kidnapped and no group or individual has so far not commented regarding the missing of the two individuals so far. The spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor, Attaullah Khoghyani said the two diplomats went missing between Jalalabad and Torkham crossing. Nangarhar is among the relatively calm provinces in eastern Afghanistan but the anti-government armed militant groups have recently increased their insurgency activities in some parts of the province during the recent years. -NNI
