SUKKUR/HYDERABAD: The CIA police finally succeeded in getting a hostage, Khalid Baitini, freed from the clutches of his kidnappers on Friday, bringing an end to a series of protests by the Pakhtun community in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Jacobabad and Kandhkot-Kashmore over the last many weeks.

Baitini, a private security guard, was kidnapped by dacoits more than five weeks ago while he was doing his duty at a gas field of Pakistan Petroleum Limited in the Kashmore area. The kidnappers had demanded Rs10 million for his release.

About a week ago, the kidnappers uploaded a video on the social media showing Baitini hanged from a tree upside down with a chain.

In the video, he was heard begging for life and asking the Kashmore SSP to do something for his release and save him from the intense torture he was being subjected to by the heavily armed gangsters.

Police say many other kidnap victims freed during operation in riverine areas of upper Sindh

The video drew a sharp reaction from the Pakhtun community across Sindh as large groups of its members held noisy demonstrations outside police stations in Sukkur, Hyderabad, Kashmore and some other cities for Baitini’s immediate release. In one instance, angry protesters blocked the main Kashmore road for three consecutive days earlier this week. Another big group of Pakhtuns kept the Sukkur section of the National Highway blocked for 10 hours a few days back to put pressure on the Sindh police for his release.

While the Pakhtuns were about to intensify their protest drive, the SSP on Friday came out with the good news of Baitini’s safe recovery.

Five other kidnap victims also recovered

SSP Amjad Sheikh, who is currently holding the additional charge of Kandh­kot-Kashmore district, told the media that many other people held hostage by different gangs in the riverine areas of the two districts had been recovered during the ongoing police operation.

He announced that Baitini was brought to the Kashmore police station and was being handed over to his family and relatives.

He told the media that over the last few days, five hostages kidnapped by dacoit gangs from different areas of Jacobabad and Kandhkot-Kashmore were safely recovered in several encounters.

He quoted the district’s CIA police as saying that last Tuesday (July 25), three workers of a company engaged in the construction of a mega project -- the Ghotki-Kandhkot-Bridge – were recovered. They were kidnapped on May 22 from the site falling within the jurisdiction of the Durrani Mahar police station.

He and Larkana DIG Mazhar Nawaz Sheikh, speaking to Dawn, named the freed hostages as Jamsher Malik, Mazhar Panjabi and Ishfaq Ghulam Shabir Punjabi, and said that an operation for their recovery was conducted in the gang-infested riverine area of the district.

SSP Sheikh said that two other hostages, Imdad Gurani, who was abducted from Bahoo Khoso village of Jacobabad district on June 18, and Irfan Punjabi, who was kidnapped on May 20 within the limits of the B-Section police station of Kandhkot, were also recovered in other encounters.

Many still missing

Media reports quoting reliable sources in upper Sindh suggest that roughly three dozen men, women and children were in dacoits’ custody in Kashmore-Kandhkot district’s riverine area alone till the first week of May.

Gangsters strike with vengeance, dealing a severe blow to the police force. In Nov 2022, they had gunned down five policemen, including a DSP and two SHOs, to avenge the killing of Saltu Shar, the ringleader of a dreaded gang, by the Ghotki police.

Saltu Shar’s killing was believed to be ill-planned. He was dodged by a policeman, Dogar, who had invited him to tea and got him killed in what was claimed to be an ‘encounter’, a police official from upper Sindh had confided to Dawn.

According to SSP Amjad Sheikh, the gang of Janu Indher, who was killed along with six other dreaded dacoits in a major police action on Friday (July 28), had been operating mainly in Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad. He had taken lead in honey-trap cases. The modes operandi is that a prospective hostage is lured to some place in a riverine area by a man who mimics a woman’s voice; or a woman befriends a man telephonically inviting him for a date. Once the person reaches the specified place, armed dacoits capture him to hold him hostage and demand heavy ransom.

As the wave of kidnapping plagued Kashmore district, work on all important projects and schemes has come to a halt. They include the multibillion Kandhkot-Ghotki Bridge on which work had been stopped on June 7, after kidnapping of the three workers who have been recovered a few days back.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2023