Kidnapped Pakistani envoy released

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 17 (UPI) -- Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizudin, was freed Saturday three months after he was kidnapped in Pakistan's lawless tribal region.

Azizuddin "is recovered and is with us safe," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which reported that the ambassador's driver and bodyguard were also released and are safe.

A video of the ambassador was released in April that showed him pleading with the Pakistan government to arrange a release for him. He had been abducted while traveling by car on the Kabul-Turkham highway, which links Kabul and Peshawar, Pakistan, CNN reported.

Officials believed that Azizudin's kidnapping may have been a reprisal for the capture earlier that day of Mansoor Dadullah, the brother of slain Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah.