ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan returned home Saturday, three months after he was kidnapped on the main highway through Pakistan's wild border region.
The release of Tariq Azizuddin came as the government seeks to negotiate peace deals to curb Islamic militancy along the Afghan border, an approach viewed with apprehension in the West.
However, senior Pakistani official Rehman Malik said the envoy was freed Friday through a "law enforcement action" and that the government had made no concessions in return.
Azizuddin vanished Feb. 11 along with his driver and bodyguard as they drove from the city of Peshawar toward the Afghan border.
Some officials have suggested he was snatched by a criminal gang seeking a ransom. But in a video aired April 19 on an Arab TV channel, Azizuddin said Taliban militants had abducted them.
On Saturday, tearful relatives of Azizuddin hugged and kissed him when he arrived at his home in Islamabad. Family members showered the envoy, whose gray beard had grown long during his ordeal, with rose petals to show their joy.
Azizuddin told reporters that his captors twice hit him on the head with a rifle after abducting him and forced him to read the videotaped statement at gunpoint. He identified the men only as Pakistani "mujahedeen," or holy warriors.
He said his release was the result of a "chain of actions set about on the order" of the government, but declined to elaborate.
His brother, Tahir Azizuddin, earlier said the envoy had been released "somewhere" in the lawless tribal areas alongthe border, where Taliban and al-Qaida militants hold sway.
Malik, the head of Pakistan's Interior Ministry, said there had been "no deal" for Azizuddin's release. "There is no exchange of terrorists," he said.
Prisoner exchanges are expected to be a central feature of any peace agreements reached between the new government and Pakistani militant groups it wants to wean away from violence.
About 30 militants were swapped for several military personnel, including two army officers, earlier this week in Waziristan, a key stronghold of Taliban militants overlooking the border.
The peace effort is being pushed by a coalition government that took office six weeks ago after routing supporters of President Pervez Musharraf, a long-standing U.S. ally, in February elections.
The ruling parties have shifted Pakistan's anti-extremist policy toward negotiations and away from Musharraf 's reliance on military force. Many in Pakistan blame his U.S.-backed approach for a wave of suicide bombings in Pakistan.
The government insists it will only make peace with "misled" groups who agree to renounce violence.
It has already concluded one deal with a pro-Taliban cleric who promised on his release from jail to continue his campaign for Islamic law by peaceful means.
But its Western backers insist that any peace agreements must include provisions to prevent militants from using Pakistani territory as a base for raids in Afghanistan or to plot terrorist strikes in Europe and North America and that they are robustly enforced.
NATO said last week that it was worried that the peace talks had already contributed to a sharp spike in attacks on its troops in eastern Afghanistan in April.
An apparent U.S. missile strike on a suspected militant hide-out in Pakistan's Bajur region Wednesday left about a dozen people dead and drew sharp protests from some Pakistani officials and political parties.
Front Section, Pages 15 on 05/18/2008