Taseer alive and is being held near Afghan border: Malik

Islamabad, Oct 17: Nearly two months after Shahbaz Taseer, the son of slain Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was kidnapped, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik today (Oct 17) said he was alive and was being held near the border with Afghanistan.

"According to the latest information we have, he (Shahbaz) is somewhere on the border of Afghanistan. I can't tell you more than this. We are tracking (him) and the information we have is that he is alive," Malik said while speaking to reporters in the port city of Karachi.

27-year-old Taseer was kidnapped from Lahore on August 26 while he was driving to work. Police had taken into custody, a number of people but any significant breakthrough is yet to be made in the case. Police had also taken into custody some associates of Mumtaz Qadri, the police guard who gunned down Shahbaz's father for his stand against the controversial blasphemy law.

Several police teams are working in collaboration with intelligence agencies on different leads in the case but have not had any success so far. It was also said that Pakistan's military-run ISI is leading the probe into his kidnapping. Salmaan was gunned down by his guard in Islamabad on January 4.

PTI