MULTAN - Punjab Inspector General of Police Javed Iqbal has formed a high-level investigative team to locate and recover the kidnapped foreigners, sources disclosed. The team is led by SSP Operations Azhar Akram while other members include SPs - Karamat Ullah Malik, Liaqat Cheema, Asif Shahzad and Qayyum Qaisrani.
The foreigners namely Mr Burnd, a German, and Mr Giovanni, an Italian, were abducted by four unidentified armed persons from their residence in Western Fort Colony, Qasim Bela area of the Cantt Police on Thursday. Both of them worked for a German NGO WHH that was running a rehabilitation programme in flood hit areas of Muzaffargarh district.
Although police cordoned off the city after the abduction of foreigners, the kidnappers could not be caught or traced out so far. Police suspect that they are taken away by any extremist outfit. However, no group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping so far.
Earlier, the IG visited the crime scene. He was accompanied by Punjab Home Secretary Shahid Khan, additional IG Mushtaq Sukhera, RPO Mubarak Athar, CPO Amir Zulfiqar, Commissioner Multan division Khurram Agha and DCO Zahid Akhtar Zaman. Later on, the police officials held a meeting to review the strategy for the recovery of the aid workers.