QUETTA: Unidentified kidnappers have killed a senior government officer, who was abducted along with his son in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province more than a month ago, and dumped his body in a remote, mountainous region, provincial officials said on Sunday.
Assistant Commissioner (AC) Muhammad Afzal, who was posted in Balochistan’s Ziarat resort town, was kidnapped while he was visiting a tourist spot called Zizri with his family on Aug. 10, according to police.
No group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. In a video, which emerged last week, the kidnapped official was seen urging the government to fulfil the demands of his kidnappers without specifying those demands.
Provincial government officials said on Sunday the kidnappers had killed AC Afzal and dumped his body in the remote, mountainous area of Khost in Harnai district. They did not say whether his son had also been killed.
“There were reports of [the body being dumped at] three locations in north, south and east of the mountainous range of Khost and Zardalu,” Harnai Additional Deputy Commissioner Saleem Tareen told Arab News, adding the paramilitary Levies force and law enforcement agencies were searching for the body with the help of drone cameras.
“We have checked north and south but due to the dark, we will resume our search operation to the east in the morning.”
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups, who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
In a statement, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti condemned the killing of AC Afzal and extended sympathies to his family.
“The blood of Muhammad Afzal will not go in vain,” Bugti said. “The killers of innocent lives and enemies of peace will not be able to escape their fate.”
Earlier this year, gunmen kidnapped Tump Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Hanif Noorzai while he was en route to the provincial capital of Quetta from Tump, according to officials. The outlawed Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) group claimed his kidnapping and released the official on Sept. 17.
