Abducted Pakistani workers freed in Afghanistan

Warned against continuing Torkham-Jalalabad highway project


Tahir Khan August 12, 2015
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ISLAMABAD: Three Pakistanis abducted three days ago in Afghanistan have been released in the Nangarhar province with the warning that work on the Torkham-Jalalabad highway project would be stopped, sources told The Express Tribune on Tuesday.

The kidnap victims, associated with a Lahore-based company, had been working on the Pakistan-funded key route linking the border town of Torkham with the eastern city of Jalalabad.

After constructing the first lane of the nearly 70-kilometre highway, Pakistan started work on the second lane this May, with an estimated cost of Rs7 billion. The workers’ kidnapping and subsequent release with the ominous condition has put the important project in danger.

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At this point in time, no one knows for sure who was involved in the Pakistanis’ abduction. However, a tribal elder who secured their release confirmed that the captors had set the workers free on the assurance that work on the project would be stopped.

Pakistani officials in Afghanistan declined to comment on the incident, while a Pakistani source could only confirm that the workers had been released.

He said Mubarak Shah, Muhammad Shahbaz and Abdul Manaf were kidnapped three days ago by hitherto unidentified men. “The workers are associated with Buland Builders, a sub-contractor for the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), which built the first lane of the highway project and is supposed to construct the second lane as well.”

A source privy to the negotiation for the workers’ release said they were freed with the help of mediation by a local elder on the condition that work on the project would not be continued.

According to officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Torkham-Jalalabad highway is one of the busiest and most important routes linking the two countries, as thousands of people use this road daily to enter either side of the border.

Pakistan had restarted construction of the project after army chief Gen Raheel Sharif – who had accompanied Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on an official visit to Afghanistan in May – had directed the FWO to resume work within a week.

Official sources in Islamabad have expressed concern that the kidnapping incident could lead to suspension of work on the project because “the Afghan government has not provided security to the workers”.

Read: Two kidnapped Pakistani engineers freed in Afghanistan

An official said Pakistan “cannot put the lives of our nationals in danger”. Referring to earlier abductions of Pakistani workers, he said the incidents could also harm other Pakistan-funded projects.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12th, 2015.

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