ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s kidnapped son Ali Haider Gilani was on Tuesday recovered in a joint operation of Afghan and US forces from an Al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan’s Paktika province.

Haider, who was kidnapped after an election rally in May 2013 in his hometown Multan, is expected to return to Pakistan on Wednesday, according to Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal.

The Afghan envoy told Dawn that Haider was in good health, but would undergo required medical tests before his repatriation to Pakistan.

The information about the recovery of Haider was conveyed by Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar to Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in a telephonic conversation.

But it was Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari who broke the news at 12.38pm via a Twitter posting. He tweeted that the elder Gilani got a telephone call from the Afghan ambassador that his son had been recovered in a successful operation.

“I called Mr Yusuf Raza Gilani and informed him about the good news. He was ecstatically delighted as expected and grateful of President [Ashraf] Ghani’s personal attention to his son’s safe release,” the Afghan ambassador said in a statement. “He also thanked the Afghan Security Forces for bringing a happy ending to a dreadful family saga for them.”

A Pakistani security source said that Afghan and US forces raided the Al Qaeda compound after being tipped about the presence of a high-value target.

But an official US statement that the State Department shared with Dawn in Washington stated that the rescue mission, which was part of a joint US and Afghan counterterrorism campaign called “Operation Freedom’s Sentinel”, was launched after intelligence sources confirmed “evidence of terrorist” activity in that area.

“Four enemy combatants were killed as a result of the operation. No other injuries or damage was observed or reported,” the statement added.

A Pakistani militant commander also confirmed the joint Afghan-US operation. Speaking to Dawn over the phone from an undisclosed location, he said that Afghan and American forces secured the release of Haider Gilani and seven officials of the Fata Development Authority (FDA) in a late-night operation in Birmal’s Margha area.

“They came in two helicopters,” the commander said of the joint Afghan-American raiding team. “The shootout began at 11pm and continued for an hour.”

He said that four militants, including two Mehsud commanders, belonging to Khan Said alias Sajna group were killed in the exchange of fire between the two sides. Besides Haider, the seven others freed from captivity were officials of the FDA who were kidnapped from Toi Khula in South Waziristan on April 10, he added.

A spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, Brigadier Charles Cleveland, told the Associated Press that Haider had been held in a compound occupied in Gaylan district by Al Qaeda operatives. “He [Haider] was the sole non-combatant, he didn’t fight back, so we picked him up,” he said.

He said that Haider had been flown by helicopter to the Bagram Air Field, 45 kilometres from Kabul. The Pakistani government was expected to send a plane to Kabul to collect him, he added.

Musa Gilani, another son of the former PM, told reporters in Lahore that his brother will be arriving here on Wednesday (today) on a special plane.

He said Haider also spoke to the family after his release and he “is in good health”.

“My other brother Kasim Gilani is leaving on a special plane [arranged by the government] to bring Haider back on Wednesday,” he said.The news about Haider’s recovery became public as the top US Commander in Afghanistan General John Nicholson visited General Headquarters (GHQ) for a routine meeting with Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif on border coordination mechanism and other security issues.

Later in the evening, former prime minister Gilani told a public meeting in Azad Kashmir that he was on his way to Bagh when he came to know about the recovery of his abducted son. “But I came here to meet Bhutto’s sons and daughters instead of meeting my own child,” said a jubilant Gilani.

In Multan, PPP office-bearers and supporters distributed sweets and danced to the tune of songs to celebrate the news. Relatives and friends of Gilani’s family came to the former PM’s house to greet them where his elder son, Abdul Qadir Gilani, met them.

He told reporters that all credit for the safe recovery of his brother went to the army and General Raheel Sharif.

Haider was running for a provincial assembly seat from Multan when he was kidnapped on May 9, 2013. One of his guards and his secretary were killed during his abduction. He remained in captivity for three years.

—Anwar Iqbal in Washington, Sailab Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Zulqarnain Tahir in Lahore, Tariq Naqash in Muzaffarabad and Shakeel Ahmed in Multan contributed to this report.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2016