PESHAWAR: The police investigators, probing the alleged abduction of a deputy governor of Afghanistan, are now focusing on his brother to find out details leading to his disappearance, according to sources.

Mohammad Nabi Ahmadi, the deputy governor of Kunar province of Afghanistan, went missing on the night of October 27 from the Dabgari Garden locality of Peshawar where he was going for a medical checkup.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for his abduction.

Sources told Dawn that Mr Ahmadi along with his brother Habibullah and a local person entered Pakistan via Torkham on October 27 at around 6pm. The local person was identified as Karim Chitrali.

Sources said that there was record of their entries at Torkham, but no documents were available.

Sources said that Habibullah approached East Cantonment policestation late on Friday night, saying unidentified persons riding a Prado jeep abducted his brother near Peshawar Museum.

Habibullah told police that he was taking his sick brother to a doctor in Dabgari Garden area. He said that they disembarked a vehicle near Firdous Chowk and hired a rickshaw to go to Dabgari Garden.

He told police that they left the rickshaw near the Peshawar Museum on Sher Shah Suri Road and proceeded on foot to Dabgari Garden via Qinchi Bridge, when they were intercepted by a Pardo vehicle.

The people riding the vehicle took away his brother with them at around 9pm, he added.

Habibullah told police that the deputy governor did not possess a mobile phone. He said that he could neither remember the number of the vehicle and not its colour. He also showed ignorance about the persons, who took away his brother.

Sources said that the complainant was not in possession of passport, visa or special branch arrival report.

A police official, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that there were some unexplained issues related to the case. He said that it was astonishing that a governor travelled to Peshawar from Torkham in a taxicab and then proceeded to DabgariGarden in a rickshaw.

The official said what even more puzzling was that they did not go directly to Dabgari Garden and instead took a detour via Sher Shah Suri Road, using not so frequented route on the back of Shahi Mehmankhana to reach the overhead bridge connecting both roads.

The overhead bridge is used only by pedestrians and motorcyclists.

The official claimed that mobile phone of Mr Habibullah had been switched off since Sunday. He said that after initial report on Friday night, Mr Habibullah promised that he would return at 8am the next day; however, he never showed up and the next day his phone was switched off.

The official said that there were no witnesses as well. `This entire episode seems to be suspicious to me and it could be even an attempt to malign the country,` he added.

Sources said that another brother of the deputy governor was living in Chitral for many years and his name was even on the schedule-IV list.

`He has to report to police in case of going out of the district and upon his return,` they added.

An of ficial of Afghan Consulate in Peshawar said that they informed Foreign Office about the incident.

He said that police should be contacted about the ongoing investigation.