Police on Saturday briefly detained and then released three German diplomats in the north-western city of Peshawar. A security official said they were suspected of being agents with Germany's foreign intelligence agency BND. The three, two men and a woman, were arrested in an allegedly unauthorised liaison office run by the German embassy in the posh neighbourhood of University Town in Peshawar, which has a presence of Afghan Taliban insurgents.
"The three were taken into custody when they failed to satisfy the police about their legal status," police official Mian Saeed told dpa. "They were part of an unauthorised liaison office of the German embassy. The office has been sealed off by the police." "They are part of German embassy operations. When we contacted the Germany embassy, they said yes these are our people," Saeed said.
An intelligence official told dpa on condition of anonymity that the three were German intelligence agents, including a colonel. "We have been monitoring them for months. They were travelling around Peshawar to gather intelligence," said the official, adding that the diplomats had posed as aid workers with the German government's international development agency, GIZ. The official said the three had held several meetings with officials from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a semi-autonomous mountainous area along the border with Afghanistan, allegedly using fake documents stating they were GIZ aid workers.
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