Across Asia: Afghanistan

Minister's brother abducted

Gunmen in Pakistan kidnapped the brother of Afghanistan's finance minister while he was walking to his mother's home after praying at a mosque, Afghan officials said yesterday.

Zia ul-Haq Ahadi was abducted in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, said Haziz Shams, the spokesman for Afghanistan's Finance Ministry. The kidnapped man's brother is Finance Minister Anwar ul-Haq Ahadim.

Shams said it isn't known who kidnapped Ahadi. No demands had been made, and the kidnappers have not contacted officials or the Ahadi family, he said.

Ahadi is a businessman who lives in Afghanistan and was in Peshawar to visit his mother, who is ill, said Abdul Razaq, an assistant to the finance minister.

(China Daily 11/03/2008 page7)