JAMMU: Unidentified armed men kidnapped 20 police recruits undergoing training at the Kalat Police Training Centre while they were travelling in a passenger van along the Quetta-Karachi Highway in Mastung district, officials said. Senior Balochistan government officials have confirmed the abduction, saying the recruits were heading home for the weekend when armed men intercepted their van.
“Yes, 20 police personnel who were going home for the weekend were taken away by armed men while they were travelling in a passenger van on the Quetta-Karachi Highway in Mastung,” an official said, according to a Quetta datelined Dawn report.
He said a group of armed men riding motorcycles and carrying automatic weapons intercepted the van and took the recruits away along with the vehicle to an undisclosed location. The armed men, however, released the driver and three other passengers travelling in the van.
Police officials in Mastung also confirmed the abduction, saying the recruits belonged to the Levies Force, which has since been merged with the police. The abducted personnel belonged to the Rakhshan division, government officials said.
Security forces have launched a search operation in the nearby mountains to trace the abducted recruits. However, no information about their whereabouts has emerged so far.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction.
Rakhshan Division Commissioner abducted
A day earlier, on Thursday (October 15), Rakhshan Division Commissioner Asad Ullah Kakar was abducted in Kharan district. There is no news about him till now and the security forces are trying to find him.
Kakar is an officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS). Officials said that Mr Kakar was travelling along with his driver when he was waylaid by unknown armed men. This is roughly the same area where Kharan Deputy Commissioner Munir Ahmed Soomro was abducted from last month.
According to Kharan police, Kakar was travelling from Quetta to Kharan in a private car when unknown assailants blocked the Noshki-Kharan highway in the Barshonki area and intercepted his vehicle.
The kidnappers initially took away the commissioner, his driver and their vehicle, but later released the driver, a senior police official said. It was the driver who informed officials about the kidnapping of his boss when he reached Kharan.
DC released after tribal elders intervene
In an earlier incident, Kharan Deputy Commissioner Munir Ahmed Soomro was released safely on October 3. He spent two weeks in captivity but was released following negotiations between local tribal elders and the armed men who had abducted him from the Noshki-Kharan highway last month.
Mr Soomro was abducted at gunpoint on September 20 while travelling from Quetta to Kharan in a private car. Unidentified armed men intercepted the car in the Lajah area of Kharan district and abducted the DC along with his friend, driver and personal security guard.
The captors released the driver and the security guard three days after the initial kidnapping. Senior government officials then pproached local tribal elders to establish contact with the kidnappers. Sources indicated that negotiations held between these elders and the armed men secured Mr Soomro’s release.
On July 21, three excise officials were kidnapped after an attack on a check post in Balochistan’s Chagai district. Around 30 armed men had surrounded the check post that was set up temporarily for routine checking on that day. They held the officials on duty at gunpoint and later abducted them. The sources added that the attackers also took away two official vehicles and weapons,
Overall, such incidents of abduction of government officials, particularly of the security forces, is becoming a common occurrence in many districts.
