اردو
  • Salman Taseer's abducted son Shahbaz Taseer recovered from Balochistan after 5 years

     Shahbaz Taseer File Photo Shahbaz Taseer

    The son of slain former Punjab governor Salman Taseer, Shahbaz Taseer, was recovered by security and intelligence forces from Balochistan’s Kuchlak area on Tuesday, nearly five years after his abduction in 2011.

    “Intelligence agencies have recovered Shahbaz Taseer from an area near Kuchlak, Balochistan,” said a statement released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

    He has now been shifted from Kuchlak to Quetta and is reportedly in stable condition, a security official told Doctors were also called to conduct a medical checkup, he added.

    Interior Minister Chuadhry Nisar Ali Khan, who was briefing the Senate on the National Action Plan when the news of Shahbaz’ recovery broke, also confirmed the development.

    “I have some good news. I just received information regarding the recovery of Salman Taseer’s son.”

    Aitzaz Goraya, head of the Counter-Terrorism Department Balochistan told AFP: “Yes, we have recovered him.”

    “Acting on a tip off, intelligence forces and police went to a compound in the Kuchlak district some 25 kilometres north of Quetta,” Goraya added.

    “We surrounded the compound and we raided it. We didn’t find anyone. A single person was there and he told us my name is Shahbaz and my father's name is Salmaan Taseer.”

    Goraya described Taseer, who is in his early thirties, as being in “feeble” health.

    Shahbaz was kidnapped from Lahore on Aug 26, 2011, near his company’s head office in Gulberg area. He was driving towards the offices of the First Capital Group off M.M. Alam Road in Gulberg when he was intercepted by the kidnappers.

    The abductors who, according to witnesses, used a Prado jeep and a motorcycle, bundled the young Taseer into the four-wheeler and rushed away unimpeded.

    No details on the whereabouts of Shahbaz had earlier been made public. However, there were speculations that he was held captive in restive Waziristan by a group that was negotiating the release of Salman Taseer’s killer Mumtaz Qadri and other prisoners.

    There were also unverified reports of Shahbaz being killed in a drone strike in Waziristan.

    The development comes just a week after Salman Taseer’s assassin was executed at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail.

    In another high-profile kidnapping, son of former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani, Ali Haider Gilani was abducted from Multan on May 9, 2013, outside a Pakistan People’s Party office in the run-up to the 2013 general elections.

    He was leaving a PPP street corner meeting outside the house of a local supporter at Matti Tal Road in Farrukh Town when he was kidnapped.