������Ƶ

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.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces have killed seven Pakistani Taliban militants in the country's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the military said on Sunday, amid a surge in militancy in the region.

The militants were killed during an intelligence-based operation in Dera Ismail Khan district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military's media wing. Three Afghan nationals and two suicide bombers were among the deceased.

The Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups have frequently targeted security forces convoys and check-posts in KP, besides targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials in recent months.

The ISPR said a sanitization operation was being conducted to eliminate any other "Indian-sponsored" militant in the area, adding that Pakistani security forces are determined to wipe out the menace militancy from the country.

"Pakistan expects the interim Afghan government to uphold its responsibilities and deny its soil for terrorists activities against Pakistan," it said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from Afghanistan or India in response to the Pakistani military's statement.

It came days after 12 Pakistani soldiers and over 60 militants were killed in separate engagements in the restive region that borders Afghanistan, according to the ISPR.

Pakistan has struggled to contain a surge in militancy in KP since a fragile truce between the Pakistani Taliban and Islamabad broke down in November 2022.

Islamabad has frequently accused Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil and India of backing militant groups for attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi deny the allegation.