Pakistan has confirmed that a man shown in a video aired on an Arabic television channel is its ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, who went missing in February.

 

Azizuddin is heard saying in the video: "We were on our way to Afghanistan in our official car ... when we were kidnapped ... by the mujahidin of the Taliban."

Azizuddin went missing while travelling to Kabul, the Afghan capital, from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

 

In the video aired on Saturday he said he was being held with his driver and bodyguard, and that they were living "in comfortable conditions and are looked after".

Azizuddin called upon his government and Pakistan's envoys in Iran and China to "to do all they can to protect our lives and to answer all the demands of the mujahidin of Taliban in order to secure our release".

 

 

The broadcast appeared to be his first public statement since vanishing in February.

 

It was not immediately clear what the Taliban demands to the Pakistan government were.

 

Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, said it was unclear whether the Taliban itself or a splinter group was holding Azizuddin.

"There have been no clear demands in this video so there are likely to be some demands issued in the future. They will probably include the release of key members [of the group holding Azizuddin] held in Pakistan," he said.

 

Scores of people have been kidnapped in the dangerous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent years and Azizuddin's disappearance highlighted continuing instability in Pakistan.