JEDDAH, 17 January — Saudi trader Abdul Hakeem Bukhari, 46, who says he went to Pakistan on a business trip two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, somehow ended up in a Kandahar jail. Now he is in the custody of the Red Crescent Society after having been arrested first by the Taleban and then by the interim Afghan government.

His brother Abdul Rahman Bukhari told Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, that Abdul Hakeem had gone to Pakistan to purchase Afghan carpets to resell in Makkah and Taif. The French news agency AFP carried Abdul Hakeem’s picture as he talked to his brother from the jail on Monday.

According to Abdul Rahman, his brother was held by an armed group at an Afghan town on the border of Pakistan, and was accused of espionage. During his telephone conversation, Abdul Hakeem said he was not presently holding any document that could prove his identity because the Taleban had confiscated all his documents along with his money.

The Bukhari family in Makkah refuted the suggestion that their son had gone to Afghanistan for jihad and denied that he had any links with the Al-Qaeda organization. Abdul Hakeem was working as a taxi driver in Taif and was not interested in extremist ideas, Abdul Rahman said.

“We don’t believe at all that he had gone for jihad because he never talked about politics or jihad or Al-Qaeda and he was not involved in any suspicious activity,” Abdul Rahman said.

The initial report about Hakeem’s imprisonment in Kandahar came as a shock to his family, especially his mother, Mariyam Eid, who called upon Saudi authorities to undertake all possible steps to secure the release of her son. The family has already contacted the Saudi Embassy in Islamabad.

Yousuf, the only son of Abdul Hakeem and a student at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah, told Okaz daily that the last time he met his father was during a family outing at Taif park.

During that meeting, Abdul Hakeem had told him of his intention to visit Pakistan and then Afghanistan to purchase Afghan carpets.