Police free kidnapped Afghan ex-governor from Mardan

PESHAWAR: A former Afghan provincial governor who was kidnapped in Islamabad this month was freed from his captors by police in Mardan on Friday, officials said.

Fazlullah Wahidi, the ex-governor of Afghanistan's western Herat province, was abducted on Feb 12 from a busy market in Islamabad.

"We recovered the former Afghan governor Fazlullah Wahidi from his kidnappers and arrested three kidnappers," said senior police official Javed Iqbal Wazir.

"The former governor was in good health and has been shifted to the Afghan consulate in Peshawar."

Wazir said the three arrested people were in custody and being investigated at a secret location.

The motive for the kidnapping was still not clear, he said.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who Afghan media say is close to Wahidi, issued a statement after the kidnapping, saying the former governor traveled to Pakistan to apply for a visa to the United Kingdom. The UK does not issue visas to Afghans in Kabul.

By Friday afternoon, Wahidi had been moved to the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad and was preparing to return home, said Abdul Nasir Yousofi, the embassy's political counselor.

"He is safe and he is with us now," Yousofi said.