ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be the drop scene of Afghan ambassador's daughter abduction case- the investigations by law enforcement agencies (LAEs) indicate that no such incident took place, revealed Islamabad's Inspector General of Police (IGP) Qazi Jamil-ur-Rehman on Monday.
Addressing a joint presser along with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, National Security Advisor (NSA) Moeed Yousaf and Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, the IGP announced to have resolved the 'totally blind case.'
"It was a totally blind case-a report was filed with police that the daughter of Afghan ambassador was kidnapped-but there was no evidence at all-nothing to corroborate this claim," he said.
Giving the details of the case, Rehman said, the Afghan envoy's daughter (Silsila Alikhil) left from her home (on July 16) located in the posh sector of F-7 and walked to Rana Market, from where, she took a taxi and went to Khadda Market (sector G-7). At Khadda Market, she bought a gift. Thereafter, the Afghan envoy's daughter took another taxi and went to Saddar in Rawalpindi, paying a taxi fare of Rs600.
From Saddar, she took a third taxi and went to Daman-e-Koh, a hilly resort in Islamabad, and paid a taxi fare of Rs700.
From Daman-e-Koh, she hired a fourth taxi and went to F-9 Park. The young lady claimed that she did not have a cell phone and used the cell phone of the taxi driver to make a call at Afghan embassy.
Soon after, she was picked up by an official of Afghan Embassy from the F-9 Park and went to her home.
The complainant had alleged that she was tortured in the taxi on way from Saddar to Daman-e-Koh, five minutes after she got inside the taxi, the IGP Islamabad said.
"It was a challenge for us to trace that particular taxi that took her to Daman-e-Koh from Saddar. We traced the taxi and found out that it was separately registered to three persons; one after another. We reached out to the taxi's present owner and investigated the driver. We saw footages of not less than eight CCTV (closed-circuit television) cameras installed in Saddar. From our investigation, it is clear that no such incident (of violence or kidnapping of Silsila Alikhil) ever took place," the IGP Islamabad said.
He said more than 350 personnel of Islamabad Police are assigned to this case; video recordings of more than 700 hours obtained from over 300 CCTV cameras, including those of Safe City and private, were viewed by investigation teams and more than 220 people were interviewed in connection with the case including all the four taxi drivers.
Five teams were assigned to this case for data analysis, technical and human analysis, and raids and operations, the IGP said, adding that all security agencies worked together to solve the case.
"We used different techniques like forward tracking and reverse tracking. Our investigation was so accurate that one vehicle that we tracked was separately registered in the names of five different persons and we managed to trace the actual owner of the vehicle and investigated him," Rehman said.
Foreign Minister Qureshi said he spoke to Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar on Monday and assured him to share all details of the investigation. "Nothing would be kept hidden. Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken personal notice of this case and he is personally overseeing the investigation due to sensitivity of the matter," Qureshi said, adding that the facts regarding this case would be shared with Afghanistan and the world.
Qureshi said he urged his Afghan counterpart to reconsider the decision of recalling senior Afghan diplomats from Pakistan.
The Afghan foreign minister, he said, conveyed to him that Kabul wanted to send an investigation team to probe Afghan envoy's daughter abduction case.
"We are willing to extend all possible cooperation to Afghanistan regarding the investigation," Foreign Minister Qureshi said.
Qureshi said his Afghan counterpart agreed to work jointly not only on this case but other areas of cooperation.
On Sunday night, Pakistan's Foreign Office sent a note verbale to Afghan authorities asking them to fulfil some requirements regarding investigation of the case, the minister said.
"There are some forces that want to create hostility between Afghanistan and Pakistan. We will not let them succeed," he said.
The foreign minister said the United States Special Representative on Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad met PM Khan on Monday to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
Moreover, Qureshi said, Afghanistan's Ambassador to Pakistan Najibullah Alikhil and his daughter were invited by Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood to Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
The foreign secretary assured the Afghan envoy and his daughter that all measures were being taken to ensure their foolproof protection, and the security of Afghanistan's all diplomatic establishments in Pakistan was beefed up.
NSA Moeed Yusuf said investigations indicated that social media accounts that had waged false propaganda regarding Balochistan and Kashmir were the ones that were behind highlighting the so-called abduction of Afghan envoy's daughter. These accounts are operating from India, Pakistan and other countries, he said.
"Who is behind this, everybody knows. We all remember revelations made by EU DisinfoLab from last year that exposed what India is doing to malign Pakistan -I don't need to say much about the spoilers- Pakistan is being made scapegoat for someone else's failures in Afghanistan," he remarked.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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