NA deputy secretary kidnapped in Multan

MULTAN: Masked gunmen kidnapped the deputy secretary of the National Assembly, Malik Muazzam Ali Kalro, when he was taking a stroll through his mango orchard in Nawabpur, a senior police official said on Saturday.

Kalro, who arrived in Multan for a holiday on Wednesday night, resisted the gunmen but they quickly overpowered him.

At the time of the attack, Kalro was en route to his farmhouse from his house near the rural area of Basti Malook.

Three abductors rode in a car while their two accomplices followed them closely on a two-wheeler. The police have lodged an FIR against five persons in the Alpa police station.

The superintendent of police (SP) in Gulghast division,
Khalid Farooq, told The Express Tribune that Kalro had parked
his vehicle and was walking on his mango plantations in the Nawabpur area when the kidnappers struck. Eyewitnesses said that he resisted their advances, but was beaten with the butt of their guns. They also said that the men seemed to be of Pashtun origin.

They escaped towards head Muhammadwala barrage, the bridge connecting Muzaffargarh and Multan where the main road moves towards Muzaffargarh district. Police had sealed off the city of Multan and also requested Muzaffargarh district police to seal the city, so the kidnappers could be caught.

Initial investigations suggest that family enmity was not a factor behind the incident.

Kalro is a close relative of Akhtar Ali Kalro, vice-chancellor of the National Fertiliser Corporation (NFC) Engineering and Technology University in Multan.

Police officials investigating the incident also said that his mobile phone signal was last traced near Omarpur village in Muzaffargarh. They also believed that the criminals had escaped towards Kot Addu and onwards to the Taunsa area which is considered a hub for the Punjabi Taliban.

Former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s son Haider Gilani was also kidnapped from the area two days prior to general elections in May last year.


Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2014.