KOHAT, Oct 16: An auto spares dealer was kidnapped by four unidentified armed persons on Bannu Road early Wednesday morning, police said.

The victim, Mansoor Ahmed, resident of Ashiq Colony, was opening his auto shop when four armed persons whisked him away in a white Corolla car towards the tribal area near Sumari on the Indus Highway, eyewitnesses said.

The father of the victim, registering an FIR in the Saddar police station, said they had no enmity with anyone, and expressed apprehension that it was a case of kidnapping for ransom.

The police and the commandos, deployed recently on all the exit points of the city to check kidnappings, raided several suspicious places to find the victim but all in vain. Since March, 32 people, mostly teenagers, belonging to well-to-do families, had been kidnapped and released after paying huge ransom. The last victims, who returned home 15 days back, were three people, including the son of a former vice president of the National Bank of Pakistan.