Kidnapped Pakistani envoy to Afghanistan recovered safe: FO

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin who was kidnapped more than three months ago has been recovered safe, said the Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq on Saturday. The Envoy Tariq Azizuddin was heading to the Afghan capital Kabul with his driver when he disappeared in the Khyber tribal district bordering Afghanistan on February 11.
“The ambassador was recovered late Friday,” confirmed the spokesman. “He is safe and sound,” he said.
The release came nearly four weeks after Azizuddin appeared in a video aired by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel in which he said he was being held by the Taliban.
He said in the video that he had been taken with his driver and bodyguard who were also shown sitting beside him, while three gunmen stood in the background.
Azizuddin had pleaded in the video to the government and the foreign ministry “to do all they can to protect our lives and to answer all the demands of the Mujahedeen of Taliban in order to secure our release.”