The residents of Wakeelwala village in Dera Ghazi Khan on Thursday got together at the house of Amjad and Mujahid to greet them on returning home safe five months after their kidnapping from Fort Munro.
Cousins Amjad and Mujahid were kept by kidnappers in Rakni, Balochistan, until their family successfully negotiated a deal with them for payment of a ransom.
Mujahid’s father Manzoor Hussain told The Express Tribune that they paid Rs700,000 to the kidnappers against an initial demand of Rs5 million.
He said some influential people of the area, who preferred to remain anonymous, took up their case after the police could make no headway in tracing the whereabouts of his son and nephew. He said after several rounds of negotiations through mediators in Rakni, the kidnappers settled at Rs700,000 as the ransom amount.
He said his son and nephew were kidnapped by a gang allegedly headed by one Allah Baksh Khetran that operates in the border areas of the two provinces.
Mujahid said they had gone to Fort Munro on the invitation of Mazhar alias Javed Lashari, who had befriended him during his return flight from Dubai, where he had a job, five months ago. He said Mazhar was in fact a member of Khetran’s gang. “We were taken to Rakni via Bewata,” he said. “He (Mazhar) had appeared to be a sincere man so I invited him over to dinner at my house. Later he called me and said he wanted to return the favour and invited me and my cousin to visit him in Fort Munro ,” Mujahid said.
He said he and his cousin were kept in Rakni in a single-storey house in dilapidated conditions. “Our room had no roof on it. We occasionally heard cries of people confined in other rooms of the house,” he said.
He said there were three housekeepers named Razzaq, Ghaffar and Fauji who used to serve food to them.
Dera resident Sheikh Yaseen who was also kidnapped and taken to Rakni over five months ago, has not been freed. His family cannot afford the kidnappers’ ransom demand of Rs2 million. They told The Tribune that they had staged several demonstrations in protest against Yaseen’s kidnapping but the Punjab police or the Balochistan police had yet to take notice of the incident.
They and other residents of Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur said that kidnapping-for-ransom gangs were operating freely in areas on the border of Punjab and Balochistan. They said several written complaints had been filed with the police in this regard.
The Dera Ghazi Khan district police officer told The Tribune most Dera residents were kidnapped from, and held in, areas falling in Balochistan and that they had already written a letter asking Balochistan police to take notice of the situation.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 11th, 2011.
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Unfortunate happening. Will we learn from such cruel incidents. It is the responsibility of media, intelligentsia, writers and civil society at large to highlight these issues in more coordinated and effective manner suggesting solutions to the problems, instead of just criticizing. On the other hand,Government (Federal as well as Provincial) should play its role prudently and pragmatically.Government strategy should not be event based rather it must take a wholesome view of the law and order situation and act proactively. People employed on public service duties should concentrate on their duties and provide best possible service to the public to build an environment of sense of security and stability. Calmness and peace will lead toward ease of mind and creativity. Everybody would then concentrate on their work steering the country towards progression and prosperity. At macro level, there is a need to divide Punjab (the biggest province which is, realistically analyzing, difficult to be managed/administered by any political party with ease) and create Saraiki Province(any name could be given). Nonetheless, a broader view should be taken in the national interest rising above the personal considerations. The point is that public be served in a better way paving the way for economic activities and minimizing unrest in the mind of youth so that they should think and act positively. The incidents of kidnapping, happening anywhere, are deplorable and condemned. .