Pakistan Widens Hunt For Abducted Diplomat

By CBS News' Farhan Bokhari, reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

The move came after the leader of an Islamic militant group claimed the missing ambassador was not in an area controlled by his fighters.

The latest twist in the search for Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin increased worries over his safe return five days after he was taken, and highlighted the dire security situation facing Pakistan's leader just days before a crucial election.

On Monday, Azizuddin became the highest ranking Pakistani government official to be abducted. Unknown kidnappers took him as his vehicle was driven through the Khyber region of the Northwest Frontier Province on his way to cross the border into Afghanistan.

Azizuddin disappeared a day after reports that Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, the Taliban's senior military commander, was captured after a gunfight with Pakistani security forces in a remote village near the Afghan border. Pakistani officials have denied reports that the ambassador's captors are seeking Dadullah's release in exchange for the ambassador.

Mangal Bagh, head of the Lashkar-i-Islami (Islamic fighting group) - which controls the Khyber region with the backing of the Taliban - was quoted on Friday as telling Pakistan's privately owned DAWN TV that Azizuddin was not in the Khyber area.

The report followed warnings from Pakistani officials on Thursday that they were preparing to launch a military operation in the Khyber.

Pakistani officials admitted on Friday that the search for their diplomat was becoming increasingly difficult and they were loosing hope. "We have no way of telling where this situation will conclude. We want to avoid bloodshed and we want to see the ambassador returned safely, but we can't be sure if that will happen," a senior Pakistani official told CBS News on condition of anonymity.

Western diplomats warned that Azizuddin's kidnapping illustrates a wider problem facing Pakistan's pro-U.S. President Pervez Musharraf as he prepares to oversee a potentially tumultuous political transition after key parliamentary elections scheduled for Monday.

Pakistani military forces began fanning out across the country Friday, leaving their units to help police and paramilitary troops keep the peace in the days and hours before the vote. The military mobilized amid warnings that the election could be plagued by violence.

In December, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi, a military garrison town near Islamabad, just as she was leaving a large political gathering arranged by her Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Bhutto's assassination was followed by days of unrest and political violence.

Over the past week, PPP leaders have warned of unspecified retaliation if they deem the elections to be rigged. "This election is probably the one with the highest risk in all ways", a senior Western diplomat told CBS News Friday on condition of anonymity.

"If politicians loyal to president Musharraf win, the opposition will reject the outcome as rigged. But if politicians loyal to Musharraf loose, an opposition government led by the PPP may have very tense relations with the president", the diplomat said.

A PPP official told the Associated Press on Friday that, if elected, his party would seek to remove Musharraf from the presidency. Recent opinion polls show the PPP far ahead of the Musharraf loyalists.

"The ouster of Musharraf will put Pakistan back on the track of real democracy," Babar Awan, a member of the PPP's central executive council said.

"We will win if the elections are not massively rigged," he added.