Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, has been reportedly kidnapped. Reuters says that the Ambassador was on his way to Kabul from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar when he went missing along with his driver and bodyguard in the Khyber tribal region.
At around the same time, two Pakistani nuclear technicians were kidnapped in the northwest. Now the million dollar question. Why was the Ambassador travelling by road to Kabul…said to be the most dangerous/unsafe regions in the world? Did the Pakistani authorities think that he was travelling between the New York City and the Long Island? Why did Pakistan military regime endanger the life of the Ambassador?
It is becoming increasingly difficult to believe the Pakistani authorities’ version whenever a major event takes place, especially post-Benazir Bhutto assassination, as to what is true and what is kite flying. “A security official said the envoy was to change cars at the border but he did not show up and was believed to have not reached the border.
“Pakistani authorities were reluctant to say if Azizuddin had been kidnapped, and refused to comment on media reports that militants had offered to release the envoy in exchange for a Taliban commander, Mullah Mansour Dadullah, who was caught on Monday.
“Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai was sure the envoy had been snatched. ‘The Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan has been kidnapped while traveling to Afghanistan,’ Karzai said in Kabul.”
Afghanistan contributed in a major way in the collapse of the Soviet Union that had an ambition to subdue this country. I have been writing for a long time that the US and the NATO countries should heed the warning and leave the fiercely independent Afghans alone. Both Bush and Musharraf now admit that there is no threat from Osama and his ilk…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.