Two lawyers freed from captivity in Balochistan

Balochistan police chief admits cases have increased to an alarming level.

QUETTA:

Two kidnapped lawyers and their companions were released early on Monday after receiving a large chunk of ransom.

Advocate Saleem Akhtar, Advocate Syed Mohammad Tahir and their colleagues, cashier Farhan and Rustum were travelling from Quetta to Sibi when a group of armed men kidnapped them at gunpoint in Dhaddar area on February 23. Since then, the abducted men were listed as missing.

Family members of the lawyers said the kidnappers had asked for Rs5 million as ransom for their safe release.

“We were released by paying the ransom to the kidnappers,” Tahir Ali told reporters after his release. He said that they had to walk for two hours to reach the Sunni area in Dhaddar as the kidnappers dropped them off in an unpopulated area, blindfolded and with their hands tightly bound.

He said the kidnappers had threatened them with dire consequences if they disclosed their (abductors) identities.

“We are poor and do not have any influence. We do not have any expectations from any one to protect us or arrest the culprits,” a relative said on the condition of anonymity.

Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani claimed the kidnappers had been identified and would soon be booked.

Meanwhile, President of Balochistan Bar Association Baz Mohammad Kakar said the lawyers’ strike would continue until two other lawyers Munir Ahmed Mirwani and Agha Zahir Shah are recovered.

Mirwani had been whisked away from Khuzdar district some ten months ago while Shah, who was assisting the Balochistan High Court on the cases of Baloch missing persons, was picked up last month. Their families ruled out that it was a case of kidnapping for ransom and accused security forces of illegal-detention.

Lawyers have been boycotting court proceedings across the province after 11:00 am for over two weeks now.

Inspector-General of Balochistan, Malik Mohammad Iqbal Yaqoob, said the menace of kidnapping for ransom has become a challenge for the police and other law enforcement agencies in the province.

“The incidents of kidnapping for ransom have increased to an alarming level and we are not ignorant about the situation, he said while addressing the 69th passing-out parade of the Balochistan Police here on Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2011.