Pakistan unsure if missing envoy kidnapped

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Reuters

SLAMABAD, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities said on Tuesday they didn't know whether their ambassador to Afghanistan had been kidnapped, a day after he went missing in a Pakistani tribal region plagued by bandits and militants.

Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin was on his way to Kabul from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar when he disappeared along with his driver and bodyguard in the Khyber tribal region.

"The search is on. We have nothing to share at the stage," Foreign Office spokesman, Muhammad Sadiq, told Reuters. He refused to speculate whether the envoy had been kidnapped.

"We don't know what happened, we have no idea," Sadiq said. "There is no confirmation he has been kidnapped."

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL196645.htm

[ohio2007]

1. He's being used as trade bait

Give us Dadullah, take Tariq: Taliban

* Officials say missing envoy’s vehicle found in Landi Kotal
* Say political administration not told Tariq would travel on the route



ISLAMABAD: Local Taliban on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the abduction of Pakistani Ambassador to Kabul Tariq Azizuddin and said they would release him in return for Taliban commander Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, Online news agency quoted Geo television as saying.

snip

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C02%5C13%5Cstory_13-2-2008_pg1_1


So it's true, Dadullah has been taken alive. The man that organized the suicide attacks on Afghan people as will as NATO forces is a guy AQ wants back.

It's a fact kidnapping pays big dividends in the taliban buisness world over there;


snip
In Kabul, Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi welcomed the news of Dadullah's capture but would not comment further.

A senior Afghan official said on condition of anonymity that reports received by the government suggested the capture was linked to a dispute between Dadullah and the Taliban's central command.

Dadullah had succeeded his elder brother - the Taliban's most top military commander Mullah Dadullah - who was killed in a joint Afghan-NATO operation in southern Afghanistan in May 2007.

The Taliban said in a statement late December that they had sacked Mansoor Dadullah "because he disobeyed orders of the Islamic Emirate" of the Taliban. But a spokesman for the commander denied that he was fired, leading to speculation about infighting among the rebels.



snip
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23199081-23109,00.html

Seems to me this guy is worth more alive then dead.