ISLAMABAD, 16 April 2005 — The daughter and son of the Pakistan Embassy employee held by kidnappers in Iraq made separate passionate appeals yesterday for their father’s release after seeing him on a video message broadcast by the Al-Jazeera channel.
The son of a Pakistan Embassy employee kidnapped in Iraq made a fresh appeal yesterday for the release of his father after seeing him in a video aired by an Arabic television station.
Qatar-based Al Jazeera television aired a video yesterday, saying the hostage, Malik Mohammad Javed, had called on the Pakistani government to help secure his release.
Javed, an assistant at Pakistan’s Baghdad embassy, went missing in Baghdad after prayers last Saturday.
“We have seen our father in the video, but he didn’t speak,” Bilal Malik, the elder son of the hostage, said. “I can’t say anything but to again appeal to them to free him.”
His sentiment was echoed by his sister. “We saw our father in the film and it was really heart-rending. He is not looking good,” said Saadia Malik, the 20-year-old daughter of Javed.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said the man in the video was Javed and hoped that he would be released. “We are hopeful. The good thing is that he is safe and sound.”
Jilani said the Baghdad Embassy was in contact with the Iraqi government and influential groups to secure the hostage’s release. Al Jazeera said it had obtained the tape from a group called the Amoriya Squadron. It said the group described the man as “the Pakistani consul in Iraq”.
Javed, 45, a non-diplomatic official at Pakistan’s embassy in Baghdad, is the fourth Pakistani to be abducted in Iraq. The video contained no conditions from his kidnappers for his eventual liberation.
“We do not know what is going on and neither is the government telling us,” Saadia said.
A special envoy of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is in Baghdad pursuing all possible avenues including contacts with the Islamic leaders and authorities, it said.
Initially the Foreign Ministry also said the abduction was apparently for ransom and there was no political motive. But on Tuesday it quickly denied a statement by Javed’s son that the kidnappers were demanding $500,000.
Javed’s daughter, a college student, said her father was at risk because he suffers from high blood pressure. “I beg the kidnappers to release him. He is innocent,” she said.
“His ordeal is affecting us very badly. I am doing my computer sciences graduation and I just cannot study and nor can my two younger sisters.”
She said the entire family was in distress. “We want the government to move quickly and do something urgently. At least they should tell us what is going on. I urge the government to move in a hurry and end our plight.”
