‘Such high-profile kidnapping had a motive to spread terror.’
All three terrorists who were transporting Shah have been killed in the encounter with security forces, the military spokesperson told a press briefing here.
He said terrorists have run out of hideouts in the wake of operation Zarb-e-Azb. Three AK-47s and around 500 ammunition were recovered from the terrorists, said Bajwa.
He detailed operation was conducted near a thoroughfare connecting Dera Ismail Khan to Tank district.
Read more: Son of SHC CJ Owais Shah recovered in operation near Tank
He said the army had technical evidence of movements’ and subsequently we had placed ambush to catch the suspects.
There is a Mufti Mehmood Chowk adjacent to Dera Ismail Khan that led to three routes: Zhob, Tank and the main city. “We had deployed forces on all three exits.”
He narrated that forces spotted a blue-coloured ‘Surf’ vehicle near Tank and personnel promptly acted when the driver tried to escape after being flagged down.
A security force official shot dead the driver. Two other ‘terrorists’ aboard the vehicle tried to flee but the security forces also target them.
During search of the vehicle, a burqa-clad person was seen. Security personnel asked it about identity, but the queries were not responded. When the veil was lifted, it was a boy with his hands tied to the rope and lips sealed with a sticky tape.
When the tape on his lips removed, the boy immediately told forces that he was a son of Chief Justice Sindh High Court, the ISPR chief told the media.
The military personnel took him to the nearby camp and the information was conveyed to the high-ups. Later Army Chief General Raheel Sharif telephoned the SHC chief justice at midnight and informed about him about recovery of his son.
Responding to a journalists query, Bajwa said Shah was kidnapped by a splinter group of TTP while leads are also found the involvement of al-Qaeda operatives in the crime.
He said ‘there were several threat alerts during Ramazan which we pre-empted with the efforts of security forces.”
DG ISPR press briefing:
TTP splinter group kidnapped Owais Shah to… by arynews
