Statement of Afghan envoy’s daughter and video footage do not match: PM Imran

• PM Imran says CCTV footage of the time of incident shows Silsila Alikhil was traveling in a taxi without any fear
• The prime minister said that there were discrepancies in her statement and probe report.
• He says they will share the videos and probe report with the Afghan team.  

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that the statement of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter about her alleged abduction in Islamabad and the video footage of the incident do not match.

PM Imran said this while talking to a delegation of the Pak-Afghan Youth Forum, who called on him in Islamabad today.

Responding to a question about the recent incident involving the Afghan ambassador's daughter in Islamabad, the prime minister said the CCTV footage of the time of the incident showed Silsila Alikhil, the daughter of the Afghan envoy, was traveling in a taxi without any fear but she claimed that unidentified abductors tortured her before bundling her into a taxi.

He maintained that they had traced and interrogated the taxi driver and obtained the videos from the Safe City cameras, adding that there were discrepancies in her statement and the probe report.

The prime minister said, unfortunately, the ambassador's daughter had left the country and there was no way to confirm what had happened.

An Afghanistan probe team will soon visit Islamabad, the prime minister said, adding that they will share the videos and the investigation report with them. He maintained that the Afghanistan team could question the ambassador’s daughter on the basis of the videos and the investigation done by the Pakistani police.      

Earlier, on July 18, Minister for Interior Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed had said that the incident involving the daughter of the ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan "was not an abduction" at all.

"This is an international conspiracy. An agenda of RAW," he had said, while speaking to Geo News on programme Naya Pakistan.

He had been referring to the Indian intelligence agency.

Reports of the ambassador's daughter being "abducted" and "tortured" surfaced on Saturday, with a statement by the Afghan foreign ministry saying that the girl was "abducted for several hours" on Friday.

The Foreign Office had issued a statement in response saying that a thorough probe has been launched and law enforcement agencies "are trying to trace and apprehend the culprits to be brought to justice".

In the meanwhile, the security for the ambassador and his family was "beefed up", according to the statement.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had instructed the interior minister to get to the bottom of the matter within 48 hours.

Later, the minister shared an update into the probe, saying that the woman used the services of two taxis, and that the driver of one had been contacted, while the other will be traced after a written statement was provided by the family.

The minister, while speaking to Geo News,  had said that the daughter had first claimed that her phone was stolen, "and later handed her phone over but with the data deleted".

He had said that the CCTV footage of the time of the incident had been reviewed and it was found that there were not two, but three taxis that she had used.