Kabul, Jun 11 (Agencies) : Investigators working on the Thursday night disappearance of Indian aid worker Judith D’Souza believe she is being held by one of several organised crime cartels who have earned millions of dollars in ransom from kidnapping foreign nationals, intelligence and police sources have told media.

The kidnappers, the sources said, spoke Pashto with an accent that suggested they were from the Shomali Plains, a plateau that was once among the country’s most fertile areas, but was reduced to a desert in the course of decades of war. Two men have been detained for questioning.

D’Souza, a Kolkata resident, is a gender specialist with the Aga Khan Foundation — part of the Aga Khan Development Network, which has funneled almost $750 million into the war-torn country’s reconstruction.

India’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Manpreet Vohra, met with top security officials in Kabul on Friday, as the country’s security services launched a massive effort to seek out the 40-year-old D’Souza.