Fazlullah Wahidi
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
February 13, 2016
Afghanistan has called on Pakistan to find and free a former Afghan provincial governor kidnapped in Islamabad.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry said Fazlullah Wahidi, a former governor of Afghanistan’s western Herat Province, was abducted in the Pakistani capital on February 12.
The motive for the kidnapping was not clear, but the Afghan government asked Pakistani authorities “to use all their tools and possibilities to identify the group of kidnappers and take action to free Wahini immediately,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, who is reportedly close to Wahidi, issued a separate statement on Facebook describing Wahidi as a “respectable elder.”
Karzai’s statement said Wahidi had traveled to Pakistan to apply for a visa to the United Kingdom, which does not issue visas to Afghans in Kabul.
Pakistani police said they were investigating Wahidi’s disappearance.