News Desk: Five workers kidnapped from the Gulistan area of Balochistan’s Qila Abdullah district have been recovered safely, with local tribal elders playing a role in securing their release.
The workers were abducted a day earlier from Pai area of Gulistan while they were reportedly in the district to load melons for a goods transportation company.
According to local sources, tribal elders contacted the armed group holding the workers and appealed for their release. The five men were subsequently freed and taken to the residence of a local citizen, Sajid, in Gulistan before being handed over to the police and district administration.
Police said the recovered workers were being questioned as part of an investigation into the kidnapping.
The men were identified as Muhammad Azan, Muhammad Adnan, Muhammad Shehzad, Inam Raza and Baqir Hussain.
Earlier reports said more than 10 armed men on motorcycles had intercepted the workers, who were travelling in two vehicles in the Gardi Pankai area, and forcibly taken them away.
The latest kidnapping comes about a month after six people from Punjab who had travelled to Gulistan to purchase grapes were abducted and later killed in Saranan, Pishin. The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army had claimed responsibility for that incident.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the latest abduction.
