Pak to send team to Nepal to probe ex-officer's disappearance

Rawalpindi (Pakistan): Pakistan has decided to send a police team to Nepal to investigate the disappearance of Lt. Col. (Retired) Habib Zahir, who went missing earlier this month from Lumbini.

The son of the missing retired officer, Muhammad Saad Habib, has suspected the involvement of anti-state elements in the kidnapping and lodged an FIR with Rawat police on April 8, reports the Dawn.

After the case was registered, a Rawalpindi police officer wrote a letter to acting Inspector General of Punjab, Capt. (Retd.) Usman Khattak, seeking permission from the ministries concerned for sending a team to Lumbini, near the Indian border, where the retired army officer had gone for a job interview.

Lt.Col. Zahir, who retired from the army in 2014, went missing on April 6 from Lumbini, where he arrived after somebody by the name of Mark Thompson had contacted him via email and telephone for a job interview in Nepal.

Earlier this week, Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) said that the role of foreign intelligence agencies cannot be ruled out in the disappearance of the former army officer.