ISLAMABAD: Security forces recovered four out of six footballers who were kidnapped 20 days earlier in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, an official confirmed on Friday, vowing that the remaining two would also be recovered “soon.”
The local footballers, aged between 17 and 20, were abducted on Sept. 9 in the gas field town of Sui, in Dera Bugti district of Balochistan by unidentified armed men while they were on their way to a tournament.
“Security forces have recovered four out of six kidnapped football players in Dera Bugti, who were going to Sibi to participate in the qualifying round of the Chief Minister Gold Cup tournament,” Nawabzada Jamal Khan Raisani, Balochistan’s caretaker minister for sports and culture, said in a statement.
“The remaining two players will be recovered soon.”
He did not specify who kidnapped the footballers.
The names of the footballers recovered are Amir Bugti, Muhammad Yasir Bugti, Faisal Bugti and Sohail Bugti, Raisani said. The minister added that security forces were fulfilling their responsibilities and the recovery of the footballers was a result of the efforts of law enforcement agencies.
Ameer Baksh, father of the footballer Muhammad Yasir Bugti, confirmed his son was among the three other kidnapped players who had returned home safely.
“We were informed by the authorities that my son Muhammad Yasir has been recovered,” Bugti told Arab News over the phone from Dera Bugti. “We are happy that our children returned home.”
Bugti said he had neither received a call for ransom from any group nor had he paid anything for his son’s release.
Pakistan’s gas-rich Balochistan province has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by separatists for around two decades. The separatists say they are fighting what they see as unfair exploitation of the province’s wealth by the state, a charge denied by Pakistani authorities.
Security forces recover 4 out of 6 kidnapped footballers in southwestern Pakistan — official
https://arab.news/yngn8
Security forces recover 4 out of 6 kidnapped footballers in southwestern Pakistan — official
- Unidentified armed men kidnapped footballers on Sept. 9 in southwestern Pakistan
- Balochistan government official says remaining two footballers to be recovered ‘soon’
Anti-minority hate speech in India rose by 13 percent in 2025, US research group says
- India Hate Lab documented 1,318 instances in 2025
- The Indian government calls such reports biased
WASHINGTON: Hate speech against minorities, including Muslims and Christians, in India rose by 13 percent in 2025, with most incidents occurring in states governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, a Washington-based research group said on Tuesday.
India Hate Lab documented 1,318 instances of what it called hate speech in 2025, up from 1,165 in 2024 and 668 in 2023, at events such as political rallies, religious processions, protest marches and cultural gatherings.
Of that number, 1,164 incidents occurred in states and union territories governed by the BJP, either directly or with coalition political parties, the group said. The Indian embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Modi and his party deny being discriminatory and say their policies, including food subsidy programs and electrification drives, benefit all communities.
April recorded the highest monthly spike, 158 events, with nearly 100 occurring between April 22, after a deadly militant attack in India-administered Kashmir, and May 7, when four days of deadly fighting broke out between India and Pakistan.
Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say abuse of minorities has risen in India since Modi took office in 2014, pointing to a religion-based citizenship law the UN calls “fundamentally discriminatory,” anti-conversion legislation that challenges freedom of belief, the 2019 removal of Muslim-majority Kashmir’s special status, and the demolition of Muslim-owned properties.
India Hate Lab, founded by US-based Kashmiri journalist Raqib Hameed Naik, is a project of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a nonprofit Washington-based think tank. The BJP has previously said India Hate Lab presents a biased picture of India.
India Hate Lab says it uses the UN’s definition of hate speech, which defines it as prejudiced or discriminatory language toward an individual or group based on attributes including religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or gender.
