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Son of murdered Pakistan governor found after years in captivity Son of murdered Pakistan governor rescued after years in captivity
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The kidnapped son of a liberal Pakistani governor assassinated by his bodyguard has been found, senior officials have said, just over a week after his father’s killer was hanged. One of Pakistan’s most high-profile kidnap victims – the son of the assassinated businessman and politician Salmaan Taseer – has been rescued after nearly five years in captivity.Shahbaz Taseer, the 33-year-old son of the former governor of Punjab, was picked up by security forces on Tuesday from a restaurant in Kuchlak, an impoverished town in the restive province of Balochistan.Hours after his rescue, an army spokesman, Asim Bajwa, tweeted pictures of a smiling Taseer who he said was “hale and hearty”.
Shahbaz Taseer is in “feeble” health, said Aitzaz Goraya, the head of the counter-terrorism department in south-western Balochistan province, where he was found after a police raid. Latest pics of Mr Shahbaz Taseer taken at Quetta,9:30 PM today.In full protection,he is hale and hearty pic.twitter.com/MqmfYtEzcX
Taseer was abducted by Islamist gunmen from the city of Lahore in August 2011, months after his father Salmaan was killed for opposing Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law. Kuchlak is a world apart from Gulberg, the elite neighbourhood of Lahore where Taseer was dragged out of his Mercedes sports car near his office on 26 August 2011 and taken away by gunmen. The kidnapping happened just months after his father was shot dead by one of his police guards, an extremist called Mumtaz Qadri, who was angered by Salmaan Taseer’s campaign against Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws.Officials described the operation to free Taseer as a “raid” based on intelligence tipoffs, although no arrests were made or shots fired.The provincial government spokesman, Anwarul Haq Kakar, said members of the counter-terrorism department found Taseer in a backroom of the Al Saleem restaurant, a business in Kuchlak famous for its traditional Baloch food.
The governor’s assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged on 29 February.
The Pakistani Taliban has never officially confirmed its involvement, but a militant source said on Tuesday that a military operation in the tribal areas had made it difficult for the group to keep hold of Taseer. “That’s why they preferred to set him free,” the source said.
Militant commanders have privately told Agence France-Presse in the past that Taseer was being kept somewhere in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan. The source said he was moved after Operation Zarb-e-Azb, a military campaign to destroy militant safe havens, was launched in North Waziristan in 2014.
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“We surrounded the compound and we raided it,” Goraya said. “We didn’t find anyone. A single person was there and he told us, ‘my name is Shahbaz and my father’s name is Salmaan Taseer’.” “They recovered a young guy with long hair and wearing black clothes who introduced himself as Shahbaz Taseer,” he said.However, a source within the Balochistan police told the Guardian a deal had been struck with Taseer’s captors.
Anwarul Haq Kakar, the spokesman for the Balochistan government, told tTV channel 92 News: “I can confirm that Shahbaz Taseer has been safely recovered. He is in safe hands.” The version of events from the restaurant’s owner, Muhammad Saleem, suggested that Taseer had been deliberately released. He said Taseer had arrived at the restaurant on his own at about 4pm on Tuesday. After ordering and paying for a 340 rupee (£2.30) chicken dish, he asked to use a mobile phone.Although Saleem refused, a man outside lent Taseer his phone, on which he is believed to have called his family. Shortly afterwards, security forces arrived and took him away.
Last week, Pakistan hanged Mumtaz Qadri, the police bodyguard who shot the governor 28 times in Islamabad in January 2011.
Analysts described the execution as a key moment in Pakistan’s long fight against militancy, saying it demonstrated the government’s resolve to uphold the rule of law rather than allow extremism to flourish.
As governor, Salmaan Taseer had called for reforms to the country’s blasphemy law, which carries the death penalty. Critics say the law is largely misused, with hundreds languishing in jails under false charges.
But Qadri was hailed as a hero by many conservatives eager to drown out calls to soften the legislation.
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His execution triggered protests across Pakistan and his funeral the next day brought up to 100,000 supporters on to the streets near his home in Rawalpindi, highlighting the country’s deep religious divide. The army said Taseer was immediately moved to Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan about 25 miles (40km) south of Kachluk, where he was given a medical checkup. He is expected to be reunited with his family in Lahore on Wednesday.The interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, interrupted his own speech in parliament to share the news of Taseer’s recovery.It is not known who was holding Taseer, although several militant organisations have been linked to the case. It is common for kidnap victims to be moved around and sold on to different groups.Intelligence officials believe that although he was originally kidnapped by Lashkar-e-Janghvi, a Sunni militant group notorious for attacks on Pakistan’s Shia community, he was later passed on to al-Qaida before ending up in the hands of the Pakistani Taliban.Taseer was rumoured to have been held for a time in both North and South Waziristan, “tribal agencies” bordering Afghanistan that for years were effectively ruled by a coalition of terrorist groups, including al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban. Waziristan has become progressively less hospitable to militant groups following army operations to seize control of the area, possibly forcing Taseer’s captors to move him to Balochistan.
Shahbaz’s brother, Shehryar, said on Twitter the hanging was a victory for Pakistan, but not his family. “The safe return of my brother is the only victory my family wants,” he wrote. The province is riven with a separatist militancy, as well being one of the parts of Pakistan where the leadership of the Afghan Taliban are known to live among a large population of Afghan refugees.Taseer, a graduate of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, is not the only high-profile member of Pakistan’s elite to have been snatched by terrorists.Yousaf Raza Gilani, the son of a former prime minister, is still missing after being abducted from a campaign rally during the 2013 general election in the city of Multan.The release of Taseer came just over a week after his father’s killer, Qadri, was executed. The hanging was a landmark moment for the country given the strong support Qadri enjoys from a wide section of the public who believe he was right to kill Salmaan Taseer. Not only had Salmaan Taseer criticised the blasphemy laws as a “black law”, he had lobbied for a presidential pardon for Asia Bibi, a poor Christian woman sentenced to death on the flimsiest of evidence.On Monday, 17 people were killed in a suicide bombing outside a courthouse in Shabqada. A Pakistani Taliban splinter group said the attack was in retaliation for Qadri’s execution.There was no comment from members of Shahbaz Taseer’s immediate family on Tuesday. But just days before, following the execution of Qadri, Shahbaz’s brother Shehryar tweeted: “Mumtaz Qadri being hanged is a victory to Pakistan. NOT the Taseer family. The safe return of my brother is the only victory my family wants.”
Shahbaz’s father-in-law, Salman Ghani, also confirmed his freedom, but did not give any details.
A second militant source said the Taliban had been demanding up to 2bn rupees (£14m) for his release.
The security analyst Imtiaz Gul said it was possible a ransom had been paid and that Taseer had been abandoned by his abductors once they received the money. The Pakistani Taliban “are a group of mercenaries with clear links to organised crime”, he said.