KARACHI, Nov 15: A son of the managing director of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, Brigadier Asif Ghazali, who went missing on Friday, returned home on Saturday.

Police sources said that Imran Ghazali, 19, went to take examination in SZABIST in Clifton, and did not return. He did not appear for the exam either. He sent back his driver and told him that he would return home after the examination. Later, he sent two messages to his family from his mobile phone.

Imran Ghazali sent an SMS message to his family saying he was kidnapped. The message went unnoticed. Later, another SMS message was received from the mobile number of Imran Ghazali saying he was being taken away from Karachi to an unknown location.

The family informed the police and the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee about the incident. The state machinery started searching for Imran Ghazali, the sources added.

At around 2:30 in the afternoon of Saturday, Imran Ghazali made a phone call to his family from Lahore and said he had escaped from the clutches of his captors. He told his location and his relatives in Lahore took him home.

A source in the police said that Imran Ghazali might be in a shock, and he would be interviewed to ascertain who the kidnappers were, after he came to his senses. A spokesman for the KWSB, in a statement on Saturday, said the son of Brig Ghazali, who had gone missing on Friday, had been recovered in Lahore. He was expected to reach home late Saturday night.

According to him, Brig Ghazali thanked his friends and well-wishers who had inquired about the welfare of his son.