Three Afghan students participating in a four-week cultural exchange program at Nazareth College have disappeared in the past two weeks, prompting investigations by local and federal law enforcement agencies and stirring speculation that the students are defecting.
Cpl. John Helfer, spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed Wednesday that the college had reported a female student missing last week, and another female and a male this week, moving investigators to interview Nazareth students and other students in the program.
Nazi Karim, 21, was reported missing by the college on Feb. 6. Mursal Bunyadt, 21, and the male student, who was not identified, were reported missing Saturday, Helfer said.
It’s believed the students were not abducted and they are not considered dangerous.

“It’s early in the investigation but from our perspective, we believe that they left on their own volition. There is nothing to suggest that there is anything criminal as far as their disappearance,” Helfer said.
Asked if the students defected, Helfer replied: “That is something that will probably be determined by the numerous federal agencies involved.”

That list includes the U.S. State Department, Department of Homeland Security, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
A Nazareth College spokeswoman and the administrative director of the exchange program declined to comment on the disappearances and referred questions to the State Department, which handles international relations and funded the program, known as the U.S. Institute for Student Leaders on Religious Pluralism in the United States.
“It is a State Department issue, not ours,” said George Eisen, the executive director of the college’s Center for International Education, which co-sponsored the program with the college’s Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue.
State Department spokesman Jamie Lawrence said early Wednesday that he had heard of the disappearances but had no additional details and would have more specifics later in the day. He did not offer any new information, and did not return phone messages that were subsequently left for him.
Imam Muhammad Shafiq, the executive director of the Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue, referred questions to Eisen but acknowledged that the apparent lack of any criminal element to the disappearances suggested the students defected.
A program schedule showed an intense curriculum of classes, including many 12-hour days, covering topics as varied as the civil rights movement and history of community service in America and grant writing.
“We keep them very busy, very engaged,” Shafiq said.

“The object is to train them in American pluralism, religiously, politically and culturally.”
The program was introduced to Nazareth College in 2009. It was unclear if it returned in 2010 before its current run, which began Jan. 29.

College President Daan Braveman mentioned the program in a personal blog in March 2009, writing that Nazareth was the only school selected by the State Department to host students from Afghanistan.
In the blog, Braveman wrote that he taught a class on human rights that touched on the oppressive treatment of women in Afghanistan.

“Much of the discussion centered on treatment of women in their country,” his blog reads.
“A number of the women described vivid examples of inequality, where some of the men were less able to see the discrimination. As we probed deeper, it became clear that distinctions were being made between law, religion, and custom.”
A press release issued by the college in January said the program would host 20 students from Afghanistan.

During their stay, which is ongoing, the students are residing in a dorm on the Nazareth campus. The State Department provided no details about the immigration status of those involved in the program.
“The program is a U.S. Department of State initiative designed to promote a better understanding of the U.S. abroad and to help develop future world leaders,” the release read.
“Nazareth College has organized a program for the students, which includes the study of U.S. history, government, and society with a particular focus on religious pluralism. The students from Afghanistan will also have the opportunity to experience Rochester’s hospitality and recreational opportunities during their four-week stay.”
JHAND

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Two Female Missing Afghan students have contacted family, lawyer

Two of the three Afghan students who disappeared from a cultural exchange program at Nazareth College have reached out to family or program officials, according to the State Department.
Department spokesman John Fleming said the female student who first failed to show up for classes on Feb. 6 and was reported missing by the college, has contacted relatives in Afghanistan and assured them that she is safe.

One of the two students who were later reported missing has contacted the program through a lawyer, Fleming said.

The State Department refused to name the students, but local law enforcement officials have identified the first student to vanish as 21-year-old Nazi Karim.

Another female student, Mursal Bunyadt, 21, and an unidentified male were reported missing on Saturday. It was unclear which of them had been in touch with the program through a lawyer.

Investigators have ruled out abduction as a cause of the disappearances, leading to speculation that the students have defected.

“We cannot release the names of the students, nor do we have enough information to determine the students’ intentions,” Fleming said in a prepared statement.

According to the State Department, six of the 40 Afghan students to participate in the program since it began in 2009 have left the program early and not returned to Afghanistan.

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