Shahbaz Taseer being flown home to Lahore: ISPR

QUETTA: Former Punjab governor Salman Taseer's son Shahbaz Taseer, who was freed from almost five years of captivity the previous day, is being flown to Lahore where his family resides, the ISPR said Wednesday.

In a tweet sent out today, DG ISPR Lt-Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said Taseer was being flown home to Lahore from Quetta in a special aircraft by intelligence officials.
Bajwa also posted recent photos of Taseer standing next to an aircraft. The pictures showed Taseer had trimmed his long beard which could be seen in the photos released by the ISPR Tuesday evening.
Taseer was kidnapped from Lahore on Aug 26, 2011 near his company’s head office, a few months after the assassination of his father Salman Taseer at the hands of his body guard Mumtaz Qadri.

The development came days after Qadri was hanged to death for the murder of the former Punjab governor.
According to the ISPR, Shahbaz Taseer was taken into protective custody from a hotel in Kuchlak approximately 20 kilometers away from the provincial capital, Quetta.
Meanwhile, according to the owner of a restaurant who refused to make a statement on camera, a shabby looking man wearing grey shalwar kameez came to his hotel on Tuesday and ordered some food, paid his bill of Rs 350 and requested to use the owner's phone which was not granted.
The man was then told to use a phone outside, which he did and a short while later was picked up by FC personnel. That man was Shahbaz Taseer, the hotel owner claimed.
On Tuesday night, DG ISPR Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa released pictures of a smiling Shahbaz Taseer taken after his release. In messages on Twitter, bajwa said Taseer was “in full protection, he is hale and hearty”.

This will be the first time that Taseer will meet with his family since his abduction four and a half years ago, a few months after his father’s assassination.

QUETTA: Shahbaz Taseer, the son of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer, is rejoining his family and loved ones in Lahore, after years after being abducted, Cnewsworld reported Wednesday.
Shahbaz Taseer was recovered “hale and hearty” by security forces from Balochistan’s Kuchlak district yesterday.


Today, he was taken to Quetta to fly for his hometown, Lahore through a special aircraft. He was accompanied by intelligence officials.
Taseer had been abducted by militants from Lahore in August 2011, months after his father Salman Taseer was killed for opposing the country’s blasphemy laws.
The governor’s assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged on February 29.

The Pakistani Taliban have never officially confirmed their involvement in the kidnapping, but a militant source told Cnewsworld Tuesday that an army operation in the tribal areas had made it “difficult” for the group to keep him.