(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-13 23:12

ISLAMABAD - The missing Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin is still alive and efforts are being made to find him, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said on Wednesday.

Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin is seen in this undated handout photograph released by the Pakistani embassy in Kabul on February 12, 2008. [Agencies]

Speaking at the weekly news briefing here, Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said that he could not confirm the reports that the envoy is being held by Taliban and the Taliban militants are demanding the exchange for a senior militant commander captured by Pakistani security forces.

Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan Azizuddin was missing in the Khyber trial district bordering Afghanistan on Monday when he was on his way to the Afghan capital Kabul with his driver and two security guards.

Sadiq confirmed that Azizuddin was missing and said, "I am sure he is alive."

He said no one had so far claimed responsibility for the reported abduction and dismissed a report that Taliban militants wanted to swap the envoy for top commander Mullah Mansoor Dadullah.

Sadiq said, "The issue is very sensitive. It relates to the life of a colleague." He added that at this stage there was no need for any foreign help from any country to recover the missing envoy.

He clarified that it was a normal practice for diplomats and envoys to travel by road from Peshawar to Kabul and it was nothing extraordinary in the case of Pakistan's envoy to Kabul who traveled by road.

Sadiq said proper security measures were provided to the envoy during his travel to Kabul.