DUBAI (Agencies)
Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan who went missing in February appeared in a video tape aired on AlArabiya All News Channel on Saturday, saying he was being held by Taliban militants and urged his government to meet their demands.
"We were on our way to Afghanistan in our official car on February 11 when we were kidnapped in the region of Khyber... by the Mujahedeen (holy warriors) of the Taliban," said Tariq Azizuddin, according to an Arabic translation accompanying the video aired by the Dubai-based channel.
"I suffer health problems such as high blood pressure and heart pains."
The Pakistani envoy said that he was held with his driver and bodyguard, and that they were living "in comfortable conditions and are looked after." Two men who appeared to be the other hostages sat next to Azizuddin, while three gunmen stood in the background.
Azizuddin called upon his government and Pakistan's envoys in Iran and China to "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."
The broadcast appeared to be his first public statement since vanishing in February. It was not immediately clear what the Taliban demands to the Pakistan government were.
Scores of people have been kidnapped in the dangerous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent years and the ambassador's disappearance highlighted continuing instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan -- a key ally in the U.S.-led crackdown on militants. |
