Lahore (Staff Reporter) – Sources close to Shehbaz Taseer have finally revealed the true story of his abduction and recovery for the first time since his return, and it is an amazing story.
Related: Abducted son of Salman Taseer, Shahbaz Taseer recovered from Balochistan
Shehbaz Taseer was kidnapped by an unknown group on 26th August, 2011.
According to the sources, the people who kidnapped Taseer were mostly of Uzbek origin who took him, to extort ransom, to the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan. From there he was transported to an unknown location in Afghanistan where he spent roughly four years under the custody of the Uzbek fighters. This Uzbek group, it turned out, had a bitter rivalry with the Afghan Taliban, and eventually became involved in fierce fighting against them.
After receiving heavy casualties at the hands of the Taliban, what was left of the Uzbek group decided to flee to safer locations. After almost four years of captivity, Taseer was handed a Klashnikov by the Uzbeks and set free.
Handed a weapon and set free near a random village in Afghanistan, Taseer stumbled upon the real Afghan Taliban, who did not believe his story at first. He had escaped from one captivity into another, where he spent 6 more months till he finally met a man from Haqqani network, who finally corroborated his story, sources claimed. Shehbaz Taseer asked this man to get his message across the border to Pakistan and after some persuasion and 3-4 more months of waiting in captivity, this man was finally able to send Mr Taseer’s message to relevant people in Pakistan after which the arrangements for his recovery were made.
According to this plan, the Taliban gave 15,000 Rupees to Taseer and transported him to a safe-house in Kuchlak, Balochistan. He simply walked out from the house and went to the nearest hotel to get some food and call home. At the now-famous Saleem Hotel, he borrowed a phone from the waiter to make a call to the only number he could remember – his mother’s, starting a chain of events that eventually led to his recovery and the ensuing media frenzy.
There are many conspiracy theories and versions of this story circulating on the social media because so far the true story had been kept under wraps for unknown reasons. Whatever the reasons may be, Shehbaz Taseer has been through a great ordeal and has survived, we hope that he recovers from the trauma and tells his amazing tale of hope in the face of adversity.
