PML-N MPA Rana Jameel Hasan kidnapped

RAWALPINDI: A PML-N member of the Punjab provincial assembly, Rana Jameel, was kidnapped for ransom from the Pindi Bhattian Interchange on Saturday.

Police sources, quoting a statement of the wife of the kidnapped MPA, said that the MPA along with his family was travelling in his car towards Rawalpindi/Islamabad to spend the weekend with their family friends when four to five gunmen in a car intercepted their vehicle near the Pindi Bhattian Interchange and two of them hijacked the car of the MPA and took control of the steering after holding the MPA and his family at gunpoint, adding that they drove down the Motorway and took the exit from Taxila. The captors however dropped his wife and children at Taxila and drove away with the MPA leaving a message to pay Rs50 million ransom otherwise the MPA will be killed, police sources said.

The kidnapped MPA’s wife told the police that the captors were equipped with lethal weapons and warned to pay Rs50 million within the next 36 hours otherwise the MPA would be gunned down.

Earlier, upon receiving information, the top cops of the Rawalpindi police along with a heavy contingent of the Punjab police and paramilitary forces rushed to Taxila and Wah and launched an extensive search operation to recover the MPA and to hunt down the captors but in vain as the captors had left the area.

The police bosses claimed that they had received some clues that the captors and the kidnapped MPA were still in the vicinity of Taxila but they had made no headway.

The secret agencies were of the view that the captors had left the area for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa soon after dropping the MPA’s family at Taxila.

When contacted, the police neither denied nor endorsed the incident of the MPA’s kidnapping.

Rana Jameel was elected from Nankana Sahib as a MPA on a PML-N ticket.

APP adds: Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif taking immediate notice of a news item of kidnapping of Rana Jamil Hassan, MPA, of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) near Pindi Bhattian sought a report from the IG Police. The chief minister directed that effective steps should be taken for the early recovery of MPA Rana Jamil Hassan and to apprehend the culprits involved behind the abduction.

50 people kidnapped from festival in Haider Kando

KOHAT: At least 50 people have been abducted from an area bordering Orakzai and Khyber Agencies on Saturday, sources said.

According to the sources, unidentified armed men kidnapped 50 people from a festival in Haider Kando.

Security forces have kicked off search operation in the area, the sources said.

Kidnapped LHV found dead in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A lady health visitor (LHV) who used to perform duty as polio vaccinator was found dead near the Pashto Daaman after eight armed men broke into her house, tied her spouse and five children and kidnapped her from the Gulozai village on the night between Sunday and Monday.

The attack is considered to be the worst of its kind against vaccinators if it is proven to be a polio-related act. The family has made it clear that they have no enmity with anyone.

Senior police officials, however, believe the initial evidence collected in the case indicated that the incident was not an attack on the polio worker but was related to some other issue. The officials didn’t disclose the motive for the murder.

Villagers and family members said Salma Farooq, along with her children and spouse, was asleep in her house in Gulozai, located in the limits of the Chamkani Police Station, when eight armed men broke into her house. The gunmen allegedly fastened her spouse and children, including three daughters and two sons, and picked up the woman, who is an LHV at a local Basic Health Unit.

Villagers from Gulozai and nearby villages blocked the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway for more than an hour on Monday morning to protest the kidnapping of Salma Farooq, the wife of Mohammad Karim. The angry villagers demanded her safe recovery.

However, the police recovered her mutilated body from near the Shah Alam River in Pashto Daaman village a couple of hours after the protesters reopened the road. Police said there were signs of severe torture on her body before she was shot dead.

Despite the police denial, most of the villagers, especially the families of the vaccinators in the nearby towns and all over Peshawar, believed that it was an attack on polio workers. Over 60 people have so far been killed all over the country while several sustained injuries in attacks on polio vaccinators and police and other security personnel guarding them since December 2012. Most of the attacks were carried out in Peshawar.

Around 4,500 policemen in Peshawar and other districts have been guarding the vaccination teams during the weekly immunisation campaigns on Sunday under the Sehat Ka Insaf programme, which is mostly focusing on eradicating the poliovirus.

Missing bureaucrat's son says his father perhaps kidnapped in KPK

PESHAWAR: Former Advisor federal ombudsman Amjad Shahid Afridi went missing, while his car was recovered from near Chach Toll Plaza on the Motorway here, Geo News reported on Friday.

Amjad Shahid Afridi’s services were handed over to the Khyber Pukhtunkhaw provincial government nearly a month ago and while he was awaiting for some important assignment to be entrusted to him here, he went missing since last two days.

The son of the missing bureaucrat, Wasim Khan Afridi told Geo News that no contact could be made with his father for the last two days and feared that he has been perhaps kidnapped. He said his father was staying in the Peshawar state guesthouse.

The initial report of his gone missing has been registered in police station (East).

Amjad Shahid Afridi had earlier held the posts of provincial education secretary, secretay higher education and secretary science information technology.