At least 12 suspects have been taken into custody in Pakistan in connection with the abduction of 27-year-old son of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer.
The suspects include the people who recently had met Taseer’s assassin Mumtaz Qadri in Adiala Jail Rawalpindi.
The others have been picked up from Defense Housing Authority (DHA), Gulberg and adjoining areas in Lahore.
Mr. Shahbaz was kidnapped by four armed men near his company head-office in Gulberg area on last Friday.
A senior police official who is part of the investigation said on Monday that the police had taken some of visitors of Qadri who recently had met him in the jail and others picked after getting the record of the cell phone data of Shahbaz Taseer.
The official said, “We have also quizzed Qadri. Some progress has been made in the case but it can not be disclosed at this stage because of the sensitivity of the matter.”
Lahore Police chief Ahmad Raza Tahir however said the case was “still unresolved” as seven police teams had been working on different leads related to “domestic and business affairs of Mr. Shahbaz and his father’s assassination.”
“Apparently it appears the kidnappers are present in the city as there are no reports that any suspected vehicle has managed to leave the city,” he said.
Mr. Tahir further said search operations were being conducted in all parts of the city and the police were also getting help from the cell phones records of Shahbaz and the people who got acquaintance with him.
“Taseer family has yet to be contacted by the kidnappers,” he said.
The two Elite Force personnel who were supposed to accompany Mr. Shahbaz being his guard told the investigators that he had asked them “not to come with him today (Friday).”
They said Mr. Shabaz’s car developed some fault and he left the house on the sports car of his younger brother Shaheryar Taseer, who is also the complainant in the case against Qadri. Mr. Shahbaz had come from Dubai a day before his abduction.
Meanwhile, the government has directed the jail authorities not allow anyone to see Mumtaz Qadri.
Advocate Raja Shujaur Rehman, Qadri’s counsel, however denied that his client had anything to do with the kidnapping of young Taseer.
“After the assassination of Federal Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti the investigators had interrogated Qadri but they could not establish anything against him,” Mr. Rehman said, denying Qadri had links with Taliban or other terror groups.
Governor Taseer was gunned down by Qadri in Islamabad on January 4, 2011. Later Qadri confessed his crime saying he had killed Taseer for “committing blasphemy by calling the blasphemy laws ‘black laws’.”
Taseer had raised his voice against the controversial blasphemy laws introduced by military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq in 1970s and requested President Asif Zardari to suspend the death sentence of Christian women Asia Bibi in a blasphemy case.
The religious extremist groups have been issuing warnings to both the court and the government against convicting Qadri, saying he had done a “commendable job in killing a blasphemer.”
A large number of lawyers in Rawalpindi had showered flowers on Qadri when he appeared for his first hearing in court.
The case is in an Anti-Terrorism Court and the next proceedings are on September 10.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today visited Taseer’s residence in Lahore and assured the family of using all resources for the safe recovery of Mr. Shahbaz.
“The wife and mother of Mr. Shabaz are in a state of trauma and they have appealed to the kidnappers to release him,” a friend of Taseer’s daughter said.
