19 March 2018•Update: 20 March 2018
By Islamuddin Sajid
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
At least 24 Pakistanis have gone missing since last year after being allegedly picked up by foreign and local security forces in capital Kabul, their families in city of Peshawar claimed on Monday.
Speaking on behalf of all missing people at the Peshawar Press Club, Ali Akbar, a resident of Shabqar -- a town of Charsadda district in northwestern Pakistan, said the educated Pakistani youth had gone to Kabul in search of but were instead arrested by NATO and Afghan forces last year.
“My son Asghar Ali was hired by a U.S. company in Kabul since 2014 and he was working there till September 2017, however, suddenly he disappeared along with other colleagues," Akbar said, adding that later he was informed by the Red-Cross that his son was in Bagram prison.
Khairul Aman, a father of another missing Pakistani, said: “More than 4,000 Pakistani nationals are in Bagram, -e-Charkhi, Jalalabad and other detention centers of Afghanistan.”
The Afghan Embassy spokesman in Islamabad refrained from making any comments on the issue and said the Afghan Interior Ministry could comment on it.
The families of missing Pakistanis requested the government of Pakistan to take up the issue with Afghan authorities to ensure their safe return home.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been tense in recent years after both accused each other of not doing enough against the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban militants.
Last year in June, two Pakistani diplomatic officials were abducted in eastern Afghanistan while they were traveling to Pakistan from Jalalabad.
The abducted diplomats were recovered after a month by Afghan forces during an operation.
