DOHA: A member of the Qatari royal family has been released by kidnappers in Iraq nearly four months after being taken captive while on a hunting trip, the kingdom said on Wednesday.

A Pakistani national was also released, the Qatari foreign ministry said.

The pair, who have not been named, were among more than 20 people abducted from a desert hunting party close to the Saudi border last December.

“Efforts are still ongoing to free the rest of the 26 kidnapped,” a brief statement published on Qatar’s official QNA news agency said.

It was unclear if any other Qatari royals were being held.

Faleh al-Zayadi, the governor of Muthanna province where the hunters were seized, said at the time that “a number of members” of the Qatari ruling family were among those abducted.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2016