Friday, March 29, 2024

Terrorists wanted to transport Owais Shah to Afghanistan: DG ISPR

Terrorists wanted to transport Owais Shah to Afghanistan: DG ISPR
July 19, 2016
RAWALPINDI (92 News) – Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa has Tuesday said that the abductors of Owais Ali Shah, son of Sindh High Court Chief Justice Justice Sajjad Ali Shah belonged to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) splinter group. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said that the terrorists wanted to transport Owais Shah to Afghanistan from the western border. He said that they were receiving technical evidence of the presence of SHC CJ’s son for three days and on the basis of these evidences, the security forces carried out an operation in Mufti Mehmood Chowk in Dera Ismail Khan near Tank at around 2am. During the operation, the soldiers intercepted a blue colored Surf vehicle but they tried to escape. “The driver was shot dead on the spot by the security forces.” The DG ISPR said that soldiers questioned the person inside the vehicle who was wearing a burqa after which the burqa-clad figure was identified as Awais Shah, who was blindfolded, with his hands and feet chained. Asim Bajwa said that the security forces have also seized three AK-47 assault rifles, six grenades and hundreds of bullets from the vehicle used by the terrorists. Masked men kidnapped had the son of a senior Pakistani judge in the southern port city of Karachi, police said on June 20, suspecting the victim could be used as a bargaining chip. Awais Ali Shah, the son of Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, was abducted outside a supermarket in the city. Eyewitnesses had said that Shah, a lawyer, had put up a fight before being quickly overpowered and thrown into a white getaway car. Pakistan has been fighting an Islamist insurgency led by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group of militant organizations seeking the overthrow of the government, since 2007. Violence countrywide has dropped significantly since 2014, when the military launched an operation in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, but attacks against civilians and security forces continue. Earlier this year, Shahbaz Taseer, the son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, was rescued four years after he was kidnapped by militants in the eastern city of Lahore. In May, US and Afghan forces freed Ali Haider Gillani, the son of former Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, three years after gunmen abducted him.