15 months in captivity: Kidnapped PESCO officials, labourers finally return home

The men abducted by suspected militants in January 2012 were recovered in an FC raid in Khyber Agency.

LANDI KOTAL: Twelve Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) officials and labourers were recovered by Frontier Corps (FC) personnel following a search operation in Tirah Valley, Khyber Agency on Tuesday.

Rahat Gul, an official at Khyber House, said FC personnel launched a search operation and recovered the kidnapped officials from militants’ captivity.  According to Gul, three of them were Pesco officials, while the remaining nine were labourers.

Officials handed over the Pesco officials to the Federal Investigation Unit in Hayatabad which shifted them to Khyber House in Peshawar, Gul added. Their families were then contacted and the men finally returned to their hometowns.

“Eight of the recovered men belong to Punjab while four were from the province.”

On January 31, 2012 militants suspected to be from banned outfit Lashkar-e-Islam kidnapped 13 people from Khushal Khawr, Badhaber on the outskirts of Peshawar. The incident occurred while the men were trying to repair a power supply pylon which had been destroyed in a blast by unidentified militants.

Soon after, one of the abductees identified as Juma Khan, managed to escape and reached home safely.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2013.