GHALANAI, Dec 25: A former MNA and candidate for NA-36, Mohmand Agency, Maulana Mohammad Sadiq, who was kidnapped on Dec 18 in the Ambar area, was set free by his captors in the Gandao area here on Monday night.

Mr Sadiq is an independent candidate for NA-36, but has been associated with the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl).

Maulana Sadiq’s son, Senator Hafiz Rashid Ahmad, told Dawn that his father was released late in the night. Senator Rashid said that “we constituted jirgas to locate the whereabouts of my father.”

The jirga had been in constant contact with the local Taliban, who had denied involvement in the disappearance of the Maulana.

“We have no knowledge about the motives,” he said, adding that his family had also no enmity with anyone.

Interestingly, the release followed a tribal jirga’s deadline to the administration on Monday that they would boycott the elections and would chalk out a future course of action if Maulana Sadiq was not found in two days.

The 200-strong jirga of Utmankhel tribal elders from tehsils Ambar and Prang Ghar led by Abdul Rauf, after a meeting with the assistant political agent of Lower Mohmand, had told a press conference that if the government failed to recover the former legislator, they would submit an application for postponing the elections.

His family received a telephone call from Maulana Sadiq, telling them that he was released in the Gandao area, Senator Hafiz Rashid Ahmad said adding that they rushed to the place afterwards to pick him.

Under the Fata Electoral Act, no individual can file his/her nomination papers from any of the political parties.