KARACHI, Dec 7: Sindh Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui said on Tuesday that the authorities had identified the kidnappers of three judges and had reached close to them.

Addressing a press conference, the minister said the government was making all out efforts to recover the judges safely.

He said that on the timely information regarding kidnapping of three judges on Dec 4, one judge was recovered through police action. However, the kidnappers took away the other two.

Giving details of the investigation conducted so far, the minister said that with the help of foot trackers, police surrounded village Hafizabad in the jurisdiction of Dhakkan Police Station and picked up 35 suspects out of whom one of the kidnappers was also identified.

He said the police had gathered authentic information about the kidnappers and the same was being verified from other sources also. He said, "We have to move ahead cautiously so that no harm is caused to kidnapped judges. It is the time to exercise patience as any haste can damage the exercise," he added.

Rauf Siddiqui said no demand as such had come from the kidnappers. He said various motives were being looked into but details thereof could not be divulged prematurely. He said the judges had left without guards and it was being looked into why they did not take the guards with them. -APP