Kidnapped son of slain Pakistan governor found after being held for five years by Islamists
The governor’s assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged on February 29 in what analysts described as a “key moment” in Pakistan’s long battle with extremism.
The kidnapped son of a liberal Pakistani governor assassinated by his bodyguard has been found after five years, senior officials said on Tuesday, just over a week after his father’s killer was hanged.
Shahbaz Taseer is “hale and hearty”, military spokesman Asim Baja said, tweeting two images of the bearded and smiling son of Salmaan Taseer that he said were taken in the southwestern city of Quetta late on Tuesday.
Taseer had been abducted by Islamist gunmen from the city of Lahore in August 2011, months after his father was killed for opposing the country’s controversial blasphemy laws.
A single person was there and he told us my name is Shahbaz and my father’s name is Salmaan Taseer
The governor’s assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged on February 29 in what analysts described as a “key moment” in Pakistan’s long battle with extremism.
The Pakistani Taliban have never officially confirmed their involvement in the kidnapping, but a militant source said on Tuesday that an army operation in the tribal areas had made it “difficult” for the group to keep him.
“That’s why they preferred to set him free,” the source said.
Militant commanders have privately said in the past Taseer was being kept somewhere in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan.
Pakistan began its operation to clear Taliban and al-Qaeda strongholds in North Waziristan in 2014. The source on Tuesday said Taseer was moved after Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched.