LAKKI MARWAT, Dec 15: Three employees of a cell phone company were kidnapped in the area between Darra Pezu town of Lakki district and Yarak locality of Dera Ismail Khan district late on Saturday night. An official source said on Sunday that those kidnapped included Zeeshan of Charsadda, Abdul Khateeb of Bahawalnagar and Ghulam Fareed of DI Khan – all employees of a cell phone company. He said that the three were going to DI Khan from Pai (Tank) in a car after repairing a mobile phone tower.

“Unidentified miscreants kidnapped them along with their car in area between Darra Pezu and Yarak,” he said.

Tajori police said that they had recovered the car left abandoned by the kidnappers near Nungar watercourse on the border with frontier tribal region.

“It is believed that the kidnapped employees have been shifted to the tribal region,” the source said.

SHO Tajori Wahidullah told Dawn that they had taken the car into custody. He said that the equipment used in installation of phone towers were also recovered from the car.

ZERO TOLERANCE: Leaders of Tehreek Tahaffuz Huqooq-i-Marwat have said that they would not allow the police department officers to make the low ranking officials, including constables, scapegoats under the provincial government's zero tolerance policy against corruption just for saving their own skin.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, the tehreek leaders, including Johar Mohammad, Zarwali Khan and Noor Aslam, said that score of policemen had been suspended from service on the charges of their alleged involvement in corrupt practices. They said that the suspended policemen included constables, head constables and ASIs.

They said that the government should eliminate corruption from top to bottom instead of targeting the low grade employees. They demanded that the process to initiate action against government employees on the charges of their involvement in corrupt practices should be made transparent.

They maintained that nearly two dozen subordinate police officials of the district had fallen prey to the anti-corruption policy. They alleged that the inquiry officers had been directed to recommend termination of the suspended policemen.

The tehreek leaders called for providing the suspended officials full opportunity of defence against the charges. They also asked the government to include members of national and provincial assemblies and area elders in the committee that had been tasked to probe the corruption of suspended officials.