QUETTA: All five officials of the district administration of Kech and a tribal elder who were kidnapped in Tump town this week were freed by their captors on Saturday evening.

Sources said that Kech’s Deputy Commissioner Abdul Hameed Abro, Tump’s Assistant Commissioner Mohammad Hussain Baloch, Dasht’s Assistant Commissioner Naeem Gichki, Tehsildar Rafiq Ahmed, Naib Tehsildar Ahmed Ali and tribal elder Mir Dost Mohammad had reached Turbat.

Hameed Abro and Hussain Baloch were kidnapped on Thursday when they were returning to Turbat from Tump. When on Friday the other three officials and the tribal elder went to the area to negotiate the two officials’ release they were themselves taken away by kidnappers.

Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch had appealed to kidnappers to release the officials and assured them that the government had no plan to launch an operation in the area for their release.

Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad, Home Secretary Syed Asadur Rehman Gilani and Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Nasim Lehri visited Turbat on Saturday and met notables and tribal elders of Kech district. However, the home secretary told Dawn that there was no role of any tribe and tribal elder in the safe recovery of the abductees.

He said the kidnappers first released Hameed Abro and Hussain Baloch at about 1pm who reached Turbat in their vehicles that had also been taken away by the kidnappers. And in the evening they released the remaining three officials and the tribal elder.

Gohram Baloch, a spokesperson for the banned Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) — the group that had accepted responsibility for the kidnapping — said the BLF had released the abductees on its own and he denied the role of any tribal elder.

He told media personnel by phone that the officials had been released after getting certain information from them. He said the BLF believed in justice.

According to the sources, Hameed Abro informed the chief secretary that the kidnappers did not harm any of the abductees.