Balochistan Unrest: Sibi blast victims among seven kidnapped in Dhadar

QUETTA:

At least seven passengers were kidnapped near the deputy commissioner office in main Dhadar City, some 160 kilometres away from the provincial capital, on late Monday night.

Significantly, according to sources, the abducted passengers were men injured in an October 11 blast in Sibi, who were returning from Quetta, where they received treatment, for Eid celebrations. They were returning along with family members who had accompanied them.

According to District Police Officer Ghulam Dastager Tareen, the passenger van was on its way from Quetta to Sibi when unidentified armed men stopped the van at gunpoint near Dhadar and kidnapped all the passengers, including the driver and cleaner.

“The armed men were around ten in number and were wearing masks,” DPO Tareen said.

The abducted people were identified as Haji Abdul Fateh, Barkat Ali, Faisal Masood, Hafeezullah, Ghaus Bakhsh, Mohammad Ashraf and Noroz.

A search operation has been launched to locate the kidnappers.

Nine people were killed and 21 sustained injuries in the Sibi blast on October 11.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2012.