University of Gwadar vice chancellor, pro-vice chancellor go missing enroute Quetta

QUETTA: The vice chancellor and pro-vice chancellor of the University of Gwadar have gone missing while travelling from Gwadar to Quetta, officials said on Thursday.

According to officials, Vice Chancellor Dr Abdul Razzaq Sabir and Pro-Vice Chancellor Syed Manzoor Ahmed had been unaccounted for for the past 24 hours by Thursday afternoon. They had left Balochistan’s port city for Quetta on Wednesday morning along with a driver and another university employee.

Babar Yousafzai, an aide at the Balochistan Home Department, said the two senior university officials were travelling with two others when they departed for Quetta. He said they had still not arrived in the provincial capital.

Yousafzai said the mobile phones of the travellers were switched off after they reached Mastung. He added that efforts were continuing to locate all four missing individuals. “All efforts are under way to trace the vice chancellor, pro-vice chancellor and two others traveling them,” Yousafzai said.

Police officials in Mastung said the possibility of kidnapping could not be ruled out. A senior police official said contact with Dr Sabir and Mr Ahmed was lost while they were travelling on the Quetta-Karachi National Highway near the Khud-Kocha area of Mastung.

The official said security personnel and the district administration were working together to trace the missing men, while a search operation was under way in the area.

Search under way in Mastung area

The disappearance occurred during a road journey from Gwadar to Quetta, with officials saying the last known point of contact was after the group had reached Mastung. The Khud-Kocha area on the Quetta-Karachi National Highway was identified by a senior police official as the point near which communication ended.

Authorities have so far publicly confirmed that four people were travelling together: Dr Sabir, Mr Ahmed, a driver and another university employee. Officials have not announced any further details about their whereabouts, but said search efforts involving security forces and the district administration were continuing.

Police in Mastung said kidnapping remained one of the possibilities being examined as the search for the missing university officials and their companions continued.