Anas Mallick, a Pakistani journalist, announced his return on Friday after going missing for about 12 hours in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
“I am back,” Anas, who works for the international news organisation WION, tweeted shortly after Pakistan Ambassador to Afghanistan Mansoor Ahmad Khan confirmed the journalist’s safety.
Following Mallick’s disappearance, journalists and activists raised their concerns, pleading with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, and other officials to ensure his safe return.
“Regarding rumours regarding Pakistani journalist Anas Mallick, I spoke with him briefly on the phone. He is safe in Kabul. The Embassy will continue to communicate with him,” the envoy wrote on Twitter.
He had been to Afghanistan to chronicle the one-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover.
The journalist arrived in Kabul on August 3.
Mallick vanished on Thursday after reporting on the safehouse where Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was murdered in a drone attack.
“We at the Foreign Office are gravely worried about the disappearance of Anas Mallick, FO journalist, from Kabul yesterday,” the Foreign Office said in a tweet after allegations of his disappearance surfaced.
It went on to say that the government is in contact with local authorities and the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul to ensure his safe return to Pakistan.
