Afghan envoy’s daughter ‘not abducted’, Pakistan’s interior minister claims

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid on Sunday denied claims that the daughter of Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad had been abducted, saying it was an “international racket” led by Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to defame Pakistan.

Ambassador Najibullah Alikhil’s daughter, Silsila Alikhil, was allegedly kidnapped on Friday from the capital’s commercial hub by unidentified persons, who also allegedly subjected her to torture, Dawn News reported.

Speaking to Geo News, Rashid said the investigation carried out so far had not shown that the woman was abducted.

“There has been no kidnapping,” he said. “I want to tell the entire nation, this is an international racket, an international conspiracy, this is the agenda of RAW,” he added, saying the Indian intelligence agency had propagated the impression of her abduction across the world.

Rashid said the woman hired a taxi at Khadda Market, “then she heads to Daman-i-Koh in a second cab, and subsequently hires a third taxi from F-9 park, but she is refusing to accept that she visited Rawalpindi”.

He said that Silsila also used the internet after reaching Daman-i-Koh.

“There is just one patch left in our investigation. We have found three taxis involved in the incident. The woman reached Daman-i-Koh from Rawalpindi but skipped stopping midway at her residence. We are just trying to find another footage of her movement from Rawalpindi,” he added.

The minister told Geo News this was the first incident of its kind in Pakistan. “Everything will be clear the moment we discover the fourth footage,” he added.

Rashid said the ambassador’s daughter had handed over her mobile phone to authorities after erasing all records.
“But some people are doing propaganda on directions of Indian agency RAW,” he added.

Rashid said earlier in the day that the taxi drivers who drove the envoy’s daughter before her alleged brief abduction have been interrogated.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the interior minister said: “I want to inform the international media that the police is investigating the report of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter issue … and we have registered a case on her request.”

Rashid said the first driver had driven the envoy’s daughter to Khadda Market, a second had then driven her to Rawalpindi, and a third had driven her from Daman-i-Koh.

The interior minister said that footage of her trip from Rawalpindi to Daman-i-Koh was missing and the matter was under investigation.

Rashid said the Afghan embassy was also cooperating in the investigation, which he said would be completed “maybe tomorrow or the day after “.