LAHORE (Web Desk) – Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada said on Friday that Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, and Ali Haider Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, are being held captive in Afghanistan, a local television reported.
In reply to a question on Punjab Assembly floor, the minister said Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif has taken up the issue with the Afghan government and that the government had been trying its best to secure release of Shahbaz and Haider.
Khanzada suspected that certain suspects from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were involved in almost 95 percent of the abduction-for-ransom cases in the province. He also said security had been beefed up on the roads linking Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the Punjab.
He told the House that in the past two years، 324 cases of kidnapping for ransom were registered، while 19 captives were killed in the same period.
Shahbaz Taseer was abducted from Lahore in August 2011 while Ali Haider was kidnapped from Multan in May 2013. Since their abduction it was widely believed that both of them were held in North Waziristan, where Pakistan Army launched the operation Zarb-e-Azb in June last year.
