KARACHI // Pakistani soldiers rescued the kidnapped son of a senior judge from his Taliban captors on Tuesday, after finding him bound in chains with his mouth taped shut and wearing a burqa to hide his identity.
Awais Shah, the son of Sindh provincial chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah, was kidnapped from outside a supermarket in the southern port city of Karachi on June 21.
He was found in the backseat of a car in a town bordering the northwestern tribal areas.
Army spokesman General Asim Bajwa said three “terrorists” were killed during the rescue, adding that the kidnappers belonged to a splinter faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Gen Bajwa said the operation took place at approximately 2am near the town of Tank, when the kidnappers were transporting Mr Shah, possibly with a view to transferring him to Afghanistan.
Tank, a town in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with the South Waziristan tribal area, is approximately 885 kilometres north of Karachi.
Television footage showed Mr Shah reunited with his family at their Karachi home.
Mr Shah’s father said he did not know which group had kidnapped his son.
“I don’t know anything other than that my child has been returned to me,” he said.
At the time of Awais Shah’s kidnap, police suspected that the group involved intended to use him as a bargaining chip in negotiations to free imprisoned militants.
Kidnappings by criminal gangs or militants are common in Pakistan, and particularly in Karachi, a metropolis of 20 million people plagued by political, ethnic and religious violence.
In March, Shahbaz Taseer, the son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, escaped captivity four years after being kidnapped by militants in the eastern city of Lahore.
And in May, US and Afghan forces rescued Ali Haider Gilani, the kidnapped son of former Pakistani prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who was kidnapped ahead of the country’s 2013 general election.
* Reuters
