A former army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Habib Zahir's mysterious abduction in Nepal has links to Indian intelligences, sources said on Thursday. Last month, Foreign Office confirmed that Habib has been missing since April 6 from the district of Rupandehi in Nepal. The ex-army officer is not present in Nepal. Many Indians have been found involved in the matter as the people who booked Habib's hotel, ticket and did payments were all Indian nationals.

Habib's ticket was bought from Precious Travels and Tours Khatmandu by an Indian named Safal Chaudhry. A female identified as Sabu Rajwari made bookings for Habib in Hyatt Regency Hotel. She works as a marketing manager in a Nepalese company. He first landed at Khatmandu from Oman Airways flight and later arrived at Lumbini's Bhairahawa Airport via Buddha Airways flight on April 6 at 1 pm and was received by Indian citizen Dolly Ranchel. He was then taken towards Indian border in a white car.

Sources report that the vehicle was present in airport parking since 11 am whereas Dolly, who is not a resident of Nepal, came there on April 4 for this special mission. After reaching Nepal, Habib Zahir bought a SIM of a local company, says investigating authorities. His mobile phone continued to receive signals till 2:45 pm. The last signals on his SIM were received from Maya Devi Temple's tower. It is pertinent to mention here that Kali Dah border crossing is merely seven kilometres away from the temple.

Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Habib Zahir (Retd) had been working at Rafhan Mills in Faisalabad after retirement from service in October 2014. Zahir had posted his resume on job portal Linkedin and on the UN website. Two months back, he was contacted by a man named Mark Thomson through email and from a UK phone number for a job interview in Nepal on April 6. The man claimed that Zahir had been shortlisted for the job of vice president/zonal director with a salary package of USD3,500-8,500 per month.

Copyright News Network International, 2017