The son of Pakistan’s Ex-Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was on Tuesday rescued from the clutches of Taliban in a joint operation by the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, three years after he was abducted from his hometown in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Ali Haider Gilani “has been recovered on Tuesday in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan,” Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement.
Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar informed Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, about the news in a telephone call, it said.
“Ali Haider Gilani’s transfer to Pakistan is being arranged following required medical check-up,” it said.
Today’s development comes two months after the kidnapped son of slain Punjabi Governor Salmaan Taseer was rescued by Pakistani forces in an operation near Quetta.
The news of the rescue of Haider, believed to be in his 30s, was broken by Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Twitter.
“(former) PM Gilani received a call from ambassador of Afghanistan. His son Ali Haider Gilani has been recovered in a successful operation,” Bilawal said.
Haider, whose father’s secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has led several major offensives against militants, was kidnapped by gunmen in Multan in 2013 just two days before the May 11 general elections in which he was contesting.
He was leaving a street corner meeting outside the house of a supporter in Farrukh Town in his hometown of Multan in southern Afghanistan when the gunmen killed his two associates and abducted him.
“Haider was in the custody of Al-Qaeda. He has been recovered during an operation of special forces,” reports here quoted an Afghan ambassador as saying.
He said Haider is in good health and he will be sent home through a special plane.
“Foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz has told me about the recovery of my brother,” Abdul Qadir Gilani said.