PESHAWAR, Oct 31: Despite a crackdown launched by the city police against kidnappers, at least three more persons, including the brother of an Afghan minister, were abducted from parts of the provincial capital.

A police official pleading anonymity said that the Afghan national, Ziaul Haq, who was stated to be the brother of Afghan Minister for Finance Dr Anwarul Haq, was kidnapped from the main road near the Frontier Children Academy.

The official, quoting eyewitnesses, said that about four armed persons in a land cruiser came out and bundled him into the vehicle near a mosque.

An official of the Hayatabad police station said that Mr Haq was kidnapped soon after a brawl of his children with some other Afghan children in the vicinity.

A source said the Afghan national was associated with a local non-governmental organisation and was residing in Phase-4 of the posh Hayatabad locality. The victim was coming to the mosque for prayers.

Superintendent of Police (Cantonment Circle) Abdul Qadir Qamar, when contacted told Dawn, that he had heard about the kidnapping of the Afghan national but he was not sure about his relations with any Afghan minister.

He said it was astonishing that no complainant had so far approached the police in this regard. However, the police at their own were investigating the case and trying to recover him at the earliest.

Mr Qamar said the police had launched full-fledged campaign against kidnappers and no one would be spared even if they were ‘highly’ influential. “We will never bow to the criminals and would continue the operation till cleaning the area of them,” he vowed.

The police, he claimed, were using all available resources to crush the “anti-state and anti-social elements” and to maintain the law and order in the city.

It was the second kidnapping case of its kind in Peshawar. Earlier, the Afghan consul-general was kidnapped and his driver Khalid Khan was shot dead for resisting the assailants.

Meanwhile, two teenaged brothers, identified as Ismail and Ramzan, were reportedly kidnapped by an elderly man belonging to Kurram Agency. Complainant Amaullah told police that an elderly man, who had arrived in the locality and worked as cobbler kidnapped the boys. He said both brothers worked as conductors with a school van.

A taxi driver was also kidnapped from Chamkani area, but the concerned police officials did not give details in this regard, saying that no one had so far approached for registration of the case.

Meanwhile, a student of seventh class of the Government Girls School Badbher, Uzma, 13, daughter of Jalaluddin, was killed by unidentified gunmen while she was on her way from school to home. Police said a case against unidentified accused was registered.