QUETTA: After spending nearly 50 days in captivity, two local footballers who were kidnapped last month returned to their homes in southwestern Pakistan early Sunday morning, a government official confirmed.
Six local footballers were kidnapped by unidentified armed men in Pakistan’s gas field Dera Bugti town in the southwestern Balochistan province on Sept. 9. The footballers were traveling to Sibi to participate in the qualifying round of a provincial tournament when they were kidnapped.
On Sept. 29, the Balochistan government confirmed security forces had recovered four of the footballers from the mountains of Dera Bugti. Muhammad Yasir Bugti, Sohail Bugti, Faisal Bugti, and Amir Bugti were recovered while Sheeraz Bugti and Babar Ali Bugti remained missing.
“Community leaders in Dera Bugti have recovered the two missing footballers,” Jan Achakzai, Balochistan’s caretaker information minister, told Arab News.
“But we didn’t have any information that they were kept in the captivity of militants.”
Javed Bugti, a soldier stationed at the Levies Control Room in Dera Bugti, confirmed Sheeraz Bugti and Babar Ali Bugti arrived at their homes early Sunday morning after they were released by “unknown persons.”
“We don’t know the location where they were released but their families have announced on social media that they have returned home,” Javed Bugti told Arab News.
Pakistan’s gas-rich Balochistan province shares a porous border with Iran and Afghanistan, and has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baloch nationalists for around two decades. Separatists say they are fighting what they see as the unfair exploitation of the province’s wealth by the federation, which is denied by the Pakistani state.
Pakistani security forces have been the main focus of separatist attacks, but in recent years they have also targeted Chinese interests, given Beijing’s increasing economic footprint in the region.
Dera Bugti district’s deputy commissioner and assistant deputy commissioner did not respond to repeated queries from Arab News till the filing of this report.
