MULTAN, Jan 21: Punjab police on Saturday constituted a five-member committee to investigate the case of two workers of a German non-profit organisation who had been kidnapped from their residence in Multan on Thursday.

The committee will be headed by SSP (Operations) Azhar Ikram while SP (Cantonment) Shahzad Asif, SP (Counter Terrorism Department) Karamatullah Malik, SP (Investigation) Liaquat Cheema and SP (Special Branch) Qayyum Qaisrani will be other members of the panel.

The committee was constituted on the direction of Punjab Inspector General Javed Iqbal who visited the city on Friday and left for Lahore on Saturday.

Mr Iqbal visited the crime scene on Saturday at Western Fort Colony while Home Secretary Shahid Khan, Additional IG (CTD) Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera, Regional Police Officer Mubarak Ali Athar, City Police Officer Amir Zulfiqar, Muzaffargarh District Police Officer Rao Munir Ahmed Zia, Commissioner Khurram Ali Agha and District Coordination Officer Zahid Akhtar Zaman were also accompanying the IG.

Presiding over a meeting, Mr Iqbal directed the team to recover the foreigners unhurt.

The meeting discussed the strategy for the immediate recovery of the abducted.

Talking to Dawn, RPO Mubarak Ali Athar said the police were investigating the matter carefully and saying anything about it at this point in time would be premature. Investigation team head Azhar Ikram said evidence collected from the scene would be sent to forensic laboratory.

He said he was not in a position to share information about investigation; however he claimed that the police were making its utmost for early recovery of the foreigners.

A police official on the condition of anonymity told Dawn that police were investigating the case and had collected some solid evidence.

Four unidentified gunmen kidnapped Bernd Johannes (German) and Giovanni Lo Porto (Italian) after overpowering their private guard deployed at their residence.