By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A senior army officer and three relatives kidnapped in the country’s lawless northwest were freed on Saturday, the military said, without specifying who was behind the abduction or how the release was secured.
Lt Col Khalid Ameer and his relatives were abducted on Wednesday from a mosque in their hometown of Mohalla Khadr Khel in Dera Ismail Khan district, where they were receiving condolences over the death of Ameer’s father.
Their “safe and unconditional” release was secured due to the role played by tribal elders and local notables, according to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
“Safe and unconditional release of Lt Col Khalid Ameer and three of his other relatives has been secured due to role played by tribal elders and local notables,” the ISPR said. “All the abductees have safely returned home.”
The freed abductees included Ameer’s two brothers, one of whom works for the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board and the other for the National Database and Registration Authority.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, and the military statement did not mention the identity of the abductors.
In a video released before their release, two of the brothers said they were being held “far away” from government-controlled areas, surrounded by armed individuals with obscured faces.
The kidnapping occurred in a region that has seen a surge in militant activities by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other groups in recent months.
The government blames the latest surge in violence on neighboring Afghanistan, saying Pakistani Taliban militants have taken refuge there and run camps to train insurgents to launch attacks inside Pakistan.
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