Two Pakistani diplomats, based in the Consulate General of Pakistan in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, went missing on June 16 while traveling to Pakistan by road, the Foreign Office (FO) confirmed Sunday. Foreign office said Islamabad is in constant contact with Afghan authorities, and the matter of the diplomats’ safety and recovery at the earliest has been raised with the relevant officials.
As per statement of foreign office Pakistan has requested the Afghan government that all efforts may be made to ensure early recovery of our officials and bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice. It is pleasing to know that government of Afghanistan has ensured that all the resources would be utilized in order to probe the incident and recover the two diplomats. Protecting diplomats of each others contains great value in international relations. Therefore, Afghanistan must form groups of highly professional officials to find the missing diplomats as failure to do so would further dent already strained bilateral relations of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been tense in recent years, with both countries accusing each other of not doing enough to tackle militants. Islamabad has said that Kabul is not doing enough to tackle Pakistani Taliban militants who have been driven out of Pakistan, but who still carry out attacks across the border. Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to Afghan Taliban commanders based within its borders and of supporting the group, something Pakistan denies.
At the moment it is hard to identify the reasons for likely abduction of two diplomats, but numbers of militant organizations are operation in Afghanistan and their role in this sad incident cannot be brushed aside. It is also a reality that various Afghan militant groups have targeted diplomats in the past. Afghanistan must understand that blame game must not solve anything and both the countries need to cooperate in order to stop militant organisations from carrying out operations. Providing assistance to each other by cooperating and helping will certainly help eliminating terrorist outfits. It will also improve bilateral relations. We hope for the safe and earliest recovery of missing diplomats.
Afghanistan must ensure safe and earliest recovery of missing Pakistani diplomats.