A Pakistani diplomat has gone missing in Iraq, top government officials said Sunday, amid fears that he might have been kidnapped.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani confirmed that a "staff member" has been missing in Baghdad since late Saturday.
The diplomat was identified as Malik Mohammed Javed and Jilani said it was too early to speculate on whether he has been kidnapped.
A government official, who had requested anonymity, said earlier that Javed was missing since Saturday morning. "He had gone for prayers at a nearby (mosque) on Saturday evening and has not returned home until the (Sunday) morning," Jilani told The AP.
He said authorities in Iraq and Iraq's Embassy in Islamabad have been asked for help in locating Javed.
In Baghdad, a Pakistan Embassy official Mohammed Bashir Alim said the mission had decided not to involve the police and was waiting for information on Javed, deputy of the Pakistani charge d'affaires in Baghdad. Javed, a deputy counselor at the embassy who has lived in Iraq for six years, went to pray at a mosque near his home late Saturday and never returned, Alim said.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi soldier and a civilian were killed in a roadside bomb in Mashaada 30 kilometres north of Baghdad, an army captain said.
