United States and Afghan forces have found the kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister alive in an operation in Afghanistan, the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, “has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan”, the statement said, adding that preparations were being made to return him to Pakistan following a medical check-up.
His brother Abdul Qadir Gilani said that his father is in Afghanistan.
“I have not yet spoken to him and will confirm only after my father confirms it to us, because there have been rumours about his release earlier also which were untrue,” he said.
The foreign ministry statement comes three years after Gilani was kidnapped by suspected Taliban militants in a hail of gunfire on May 9, 2013 in Pakistan, two days before the national election in which he was campaigning.