Release of Wapda employees: Kidnappers demand Rs100 million

Militants have also demanded release of 20 of their confederates as ransom for 12 WAPDA employees.

PESHAWAR:

Militants have demanded Rs100 million and release of 20 of their confederates as ransom for 12 employees of the Water and Power Development Authority in their custody, the PHC was informed on Tuesday.

Iqbal Ahmad Durrani, the attorney of the political administration of Khyber Agency, informed a PHC division bench comprising Chief Justice (CJ) PHC Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth that Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) militants communicated these demands to a jirga that was sent to negotiate the employees’ release.

CJ Khan expressed deep concern over the political administration’s failure of to recover the employees, who were abducted while setting up electricity pylons in Badhber earlier this year.

“If there had been any high-profile person among the abductees, you would have hanged Mangal Bagh, the LI chief, in Chowk Yadgar,” CJ Khan remarked.

Durrani informed the bench that a number of people suspected to have facilitated the kidnappers have been arrested.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2012.