Kidnapping for ransom?: Two security officials among missing passengers

Commuters on board one vehicle yet to be identified, says police.


Our Correspondent September 08, 2013
Commuters on board one vehicle yet to be identified, says police. PHOTO: FILE

PESHAWAR:


Two days after the attack on Kohat road, six people are still missing. Investigators have identified two security men among the kidnapped and believe the number of missing could increase.


Late on Friday, a convoy of vehicles was attacked by militants who presumably mistook it to be a military convoy.

Militants sprayed bullets at the fleet and on other vehicles present on the road. Nine people have died in the incident so far - six among these were residents who had rushed to the site to help in rescue efforts.

The security officials identified on Sunday are Amjad and Wazir Ahmad Shah, a Mattani police official told The Express Tribune. They were travelling in a vehicle registered in Karachi and were bound from Miranshah, North Waziristan towards Peshawar, when they were attacked.

Investigations revealed the men were not in uniform and their vehicle was found stranded along with three others vehicles on Saturday morning.

“Driver Arif Khan, who was in a rented vehicle, is also amongst the missing” said the official, “We do not know how many people were travelling in the rented vehicle,” he added, speculating that the number of people kidnapped might increase. “Passengers of one vehicle remain unidentified,” he concluded.

Officials believe the incident is not an isolated act but connected to the increasing violence on the outskirts of the city.

The police, aided by security officials, had launched a large-scale search operation in Mattani and its surroundings. However, the violence has failed to cease.

“There have been people kidnapped for ransom previously from the same locality, this might be another of those instances” added another official.

In May, militants ambushed DPO Kohat Dilwar Khan and two military convoys in the same area which left at least a dozen people dead and another dozen injured.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2013.

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