FACTBOX - Pakistan's kidnapped ambassador to Afghanistan

REUTERS - Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, who went missing in February in the Khyber region, appeared on Arabic television on Saturday saying he was being held by the Taliban and urged Islamabad to meet their demands.

Following are some facts about the case:

* Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin, 56, went missing on Feb. 11 along with his driver and a guard as he was travelling from the northwestern city of Peshawar to the Afghan-Pakistani border. He was on his way back to the Afghan capital.

* He disappeared in the Khyber tribal region, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in Pakistan populated mostly by ethnic Pashtuns who inhabit both sides of the border. The Khyber Pass is the main route between the two countries.

* The Khyber region has been notorious for kidnapping but Islamist militants, who operate in some other tribal regions on the border such as Waziristan, have not been prominent in Khyber.

* Two days after he went missing, a spokesman for Pakistani Taliban militants denied they had kidnapped Azizuddin and the Foreign Ministry denied media reports that the Taliban had demanded the release of captured Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Mansour Dadullah in exchange for the envoy.

* Azizuddin was appointed ambassador to Afghanistan in October 2005. He had served in the Pakistani embassy in Kabul from 1992 to 1994.

* Azizuddin was ambassador to Bosnia from 2001 to 2004.