January 13, 2008	Sunday	Muharram 03, 1429

HARIPUR, Jan 12: A close relative of former provincial minister and PML-N candidate Sardar Mushtaq Khan is said to have been kidnapped in Kotnajibullah village.

Prof Sardar Iftikhar’s servant reportedly suffered injuries in the incident on Friday.

Police declined to confirm the kidnapping and said the professor’s relatives had not approached them for an FIR.

Family sources told Dawn that Prof Iftikhar, who teaches history at the Government Postgraduate College, was at his farmhouse near Nawab Abad Daidan village along with his servant when five unknown persons barged in and took away the professor at gunpoint.

The kidnappers thrashed the servant when he put up resistance and threw him in a nearby ravine after tying up his hands.

The sources said the professor had contacted the family by telephone on Saturday morning from an unknown place and asked them not to lodge an FIR promising that he would make it home within a couple of days.

A family member brushed aside the notion that the professor had enmity with any one.