LAHORE: The kidnapped sons of late Punjab governor Salman Taseer and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani are being held in Afghanistan, DawnNews reported.

This was stated on Friday by Punjab Home Minister, Colonel (retd) Shuja Khanzada who also said that all efforts were being made to recover Shahbaz Taseer and Ali Haider Gilani.

He said that the Punjab government had made contacts with officials in Afghanistan to recover the two men and bring them back to Pakistan.

Khanzada stated that kidnappings did not only occur in Punjab, but also in other provinces as well.

He said that around 95 per cent of kidnapping-related cases in Pakistan occur in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Shahbaz Taseer was kidnapped from Lahore on Aug 26, 2011 in the morning near his company’s head office.

Read more: Slain Salman Taseer’s son kidnapped

Taseer was driving towards the offices of the First Capital Group off M.M. Alam Road in Gulberg when he was intercepted by the kidnappers.

The abductors who, according to witnesses, used a Prado jeep and a motorcycle, bundled the young Taseer into the four-wheeler and rushed away unimpeded.

Ali Haider Gilani was abducted from Multan on May 9, 2013 outside a Pakistan People’s Party office.

Read: Ali Haider Gilani, son of former PM, kidnapped

He was leaving a PPP street corner meeting outside the house of a supporter at Matti Tal Road in Farrukh Town when he was kidnapped.