LANDI KOTAL, July 21: The political administration of the Khyber Agency released all the shopkeepers and unsealed their shops on Monday as the Bara Tajir Ittehad continued its protest against the increasing incidents of kidnapping for ransom.

On Sunday, a doctor, Masoodul Haq, was kidnapped at gunpoint near Nao Gazee Baba on the Bara-Jamrud road.

The Ittehad in collaboration with the Tanzim Ittehad-i-Afridi and the Khyber Union had constituted a Jirga to negotiate with the political authorities.

The administration had taken the action against Sipah tribesmen after  the car in which a customs official and his friend were kidnapped was recovered from the Sipah area last month.

The Tajir Ittehad’s acting general secretary, Gul Ahmad Afridi, told Dawn that the release of shopkeepers and opening of their shops was unconditional.

Sources revealed that the kidnapped doctor had contacted his family on Sunday night over his cellphone but he could not tell anything about his abductors or whereabouts.