Shahbaz Taseer’s abduction: Police interrogate family servant

The man’s fingerprint matched with that found on a handle of Shahbaz’s car.

LAHORE: Investigations continue into Shahbaz Taseer’s abduction as Lahore police interrogated two servants, and seven employees and guards at his company, The Express Tribune has learnt.

“So far, we have traced only one fingerprint from his Mercedes car’s left handle which, according to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), belongs to one of the servants of the Taseer family,” SSP Investigations Abdul Razzaque Cheema said.

He said that NADRA is tracing fingerprints taken off of the gun [left behind by the kidnappers], Shahbaz’s phone and laptop. Phone records, he said, have also been checked by mobile phone companies and no suspicious called were made at the time [of the incident].

Shahbaz Taseer, son of Punjab’s slain governor Salmaan Taseer, was kidnapped on Friday in Lahore’s upscale Gulberg area while on his way to work. But forensic experts have warned that evidence collected from the abduction site may not help investigators as some police officers mishandled the evidence.

Speaking to The Express Tribune on Sunday, investigators said that police have no leads as yet in the case. They said multiple aspects were being investigated and only hypothesis seems conclusive: since no group has claimed responsibility or demanded ransom, the abduction could be rooted in a family or property dispute.

Eyewitness?

SSP Cheema said that traffic warden Zeeshan, who was said to have witnessed the entire scene, was actually told by someone that a 222-rifle is lying on the ground near Park Plaza Hotel which contradicts his earlier statement that he saw the kidnappers throw the rifle out of their black Prado.  Cheema said he does not suspect any other car to have accompanied that of the kidnappers. He added the man, who had checked out from a company guest house a few minutes before Shahbaz’s abduction, has been cleared from the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th,  2011.