A retired Pakistani Army officer has gone missing for the past three days from near Nepal-India border while visiting Nepal for a job interview, Pakistani media reports said.
Retired Lt Col Mohammad Habib is feared to have been abducted, the reports said, citing Pakistani charge d’affaires Javed Imrani in Kathmandu.
Following a complaint from his family, the Pakistani embassy requested Nepali foreign ministry on Sunday to help find Habib. An official at Nepal’s foreign ministry said it has forwarded the request to the home ministry.
Habib last contacted his family on Thursday afternoon and since then his phone has not been reachable.
The colonel, who reportedly retired in October 2014 and belonged to artillery, was later employed with a private firm in Pakistan and had posted his resume online in search of employment.
He had landed in Kathmandu on Thursday via Oman Air and was received by one Javad Ansari at the airport and left for Lumbini the same day.
After reaching Lumbini, he made a phone call to his family from a local mobile number which was switched off immediately after the call, reports said.
He was reportedly offered a job for UN in Lumbini and approached by one Mark Thomsan from a London-based number. But this number also turned out to be fake.
{{/usCountry}}He was reportedly offered a job for UN in Lumbini and approached by one Mark Thomsan from a London-based number. But this number also turned out to be fake.
{{/usCountry}}According to the embassy, Habib had applied the job through a website and after he went missing, the website and twitter handle of the recruitment website were suspended. The mobile number that was made to offer the job also turned out to be fake, it said.
Habib’s family reported his disappearance to the Pakistani foreign ministry after being unable to get in touch with him.
Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said the Pakistani embassy is in contact with the local authorities.