TTP faction claims Chinese tourist’s abduction

Police claim to have detained two of the kidnappers.

DI KHAN:

A faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed on Tuesday that a Chinese tourist who went missing a day earlier is in the custody of his group.

“We have kidnapped the Chinese national and we claim responsibility for it,” Abdullah Bahar, a Taliban commander in South Waziristan told AFP, adding that the man had been taken to a secret location on the Afghan border.

“We will demand the release of our prisoners [in exchange for the Chinese tourist] who are in government’s custody,” he added.

The tourist was kidnapped near Kulachi Mur on DI Khan-Zhob Road, a police official at Daraban police station told The Express Tribune. 

He was travelling to Balochistan from Peshawar on a bicycle when six gunmen riding on three motorcycles kidnapped him at gunpoint, the official added. The police have recovered his bicycle and his travelling bag and have registered a case of kidnapping.

Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam confirmed the kidnapping and told AFP that police had launched a search operation.

The Chinese embassy in Islamabad could not be reached for comment, but in its report on the kidnapping China’s state news agency Xinhua said an official had said the mission was “contacting Pakistan’s relevant departments to verify the incident”.

While talking to journalists, Sadaq Baluch, the district police officer, claimed that they have detained two of the kidnappers who he identified as Ayub and Nizam-u-Din and recovered one of the motorcycles used in kidnapping. He said the police search was continuing and hoped that Chinese tourist would be recovered soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2014.