INDIANAPOLIS -- A missing 15-year-old foreign exchange student from Afghanistan may have defected to Canada, police said.
Mohammed Karim Azizi, from Kabul, was with a group of students from his exchange high school in Ohio who were visiting Indianapolis for the National FFA Convention when he was last seen Thursday night on Monument Circle.
Since 2004, the group said it has had 40 Afghan exchange students leave the United States for Canada.
"Under Canadian law, if he gets up there, then he can claim political asylum," said Capt. David Allender. "And if he goes to Canada, he'll enter it legally. He has his passport." World Links said that by attaining Canadian citizenship, the teen would be able to bring the rest of his family into the country, including his father, a shopkeeper, and seven siblings.
Investigators said that the boy had premeditated his disappearance, having cleaned out his locker at his Ohio school before leaving. He had also turned off his cell phone, which cut off a key method police could have used to track him.
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