Kidnappers release three men

QUETTA: Three kidnapped officials of an international NGO Mercy Corps were released on Wednesday, family sources said. A group of armed men had abducted the four officials from Qila Saifullah, an area bordering Afghanistan, on February 12, while they were returning to Quetta.

Three officials Dr Asif Abbas, Ifikhar Shah and administration officer Babrak Suleman reached their homes early on Wednesday. The kidnappers freed them in Bannu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, family sources told reporters. However, the family members refused to divulge details about how the release came about but sources said that kidnappers had been paid Rs100 million as ransom.

“A group of tribal elders held a Jirga with the kidnappers for the release of abducted persons,” an official told The Express Tribune on request of anonymity. The kidnappers are said to be suspected militants who had demanded ransom several times. Earlier, the Mercy Corps had closed its offices all over Pakistan after the killing of Habibullah, a driver for the organisation, who hailed from Bostan area of Quetta.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2010.