Within 12 hours: Journalist kidnapped, released in Quetta

QUETTA: The Vice President of Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) and Quetta based journalist Afzal Mughal was kidnapped by a group of armed men from his residence in Quetta’s Jinnah Town in the early hours of Tuesday. The journalist was later freed after remaining in captivity for 12 hours. The spokesperson for Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) confirmed that a group of armed men stormed his house and woke him up at 2:30am. “He was kicked and punched while the armed men dragged him outside the house,” the BUJ official said quoting the wife of the kidnapped journalist. Around 2:30pm, Mughal reached home safely without being harmed. “My health is good,” he told reporters at his residence. “I was blindfolded and taken to unknown place”. Mughal is reporter for Online International News Agency and a local daily newspaper based in Quetta.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2015.