LANDI KOTAL/ ISLAMABAD, Feb 13: Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin, who went missing in the Khyber tribal region on Monday, remains untraced, while the authorities arrested on Wednesday 11 persons, including 10 Khasadar personnel and impounded a vehicle believed to have been used in the kidnapping.

The tribal administration officials said there had been no progress in the search for the diplomat because they believed that he had been shifted to the adjoining Orakzai tribal region. They cited ‘credible information’ that Mr Azizuddin’s vehicle had been last seen in Mishti Banda, Dabori and Mishtikhel areas of the tribal region.

“We are confident that the ambassador is not here. There is a possibility that he might have been shifted to Orakzai region,” the officials said.

But Political Agent of Orakzai Dr Fakher Alam said his administration had no reports about the presence of Mr Azizuddin in his agency.

The administration has engaged the Khasadar force to comb the area.

Officials said that the political administration had detained 10 Khasadars for negligence. They had been deployed at the Lakar Baba checkpost located between the Khyber and Orakzai regions. The Khasadar personnel admitted to have seen the diplomat’s vehicle and even questioned the driver about the purpose of their visit. “We were told that some government officials were on a routine visit to the area,” officials quoted the detained personnel as saying.

Meanwhile, the administration impounded a vehicle with a fake number plate from a taxi-stand in Landi Kotal bazaar and arrested the driver. Based on the information provided by the driver, the authorities arrested a tribesman on suspicion of his involvement in the kidnapping.

Assistant Political Agent Landi Kotal Ahmad Khan Orakzai told Dawn that after searching the area through which the ambassador’s vehicle had passed, investigators came to the conclusion that he, his driver and guard had been moved to Orakzai on the first day of the incident.

He added that he and a Khasadar team had thoroughly searched the area in the Khyber Agency, but had failed to find a clue.

‘On the information provided by local residents, we followed the route that had supposedly been used by the kidnappers,” he said, adding that the ambassador’s vehicle had crossed into Orakzai’s Feroz Khel area at around 4.30pm on Monday.

Mr Khan said he had information that the vehicle was last seen in the Sam Pog area of the Dabori village in Orakzai Agency on Monday.

Officials said the search operation was continuing and they had sent a number of Khasadar teams and local elders to various localities to trace the missing diplomat.

He did not rule out the possibility of invoking the Collective Territorial Responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation against tribesmen.

Meanwhile, the government has denied reports that Mr Azizuddin was kidnapped by the Taliban or that the latter were demanding release of their commander Mansoor Dadullah in exchange for freeing him.

“Nobody from the Taliban has so far contacted the government for such an exchange,” Interior Ministry Spokesman Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema told Dawn in Islamabad.

He said the security forces had intensified the search operation.

The spokesman said the government was also seeking the help of tribal elders. “It is a normal practice to seek help of tribal elders in such situations,” he said.

Reuters adds: Local Taliban said on Wednesday they would not attack next week’s general election in the country and denied involvement in the disappearance of the ambassador.

“Our central leadership has decided that as we have nothing to do with the elections, therefore, there would be no attacks from our people,” spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban Maulvi Omar said.

“Neither do we support the process of the election nor do we have any opposition to it and if any attack takes place before or on election day, our mujahid won’t be involved in it,” he said.

About Mr Azizuddin’s disappearance, he said: “We have no links with it. We don’t know anything about that”.

Maulvi Omar is a spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban.