QUETTA, Oct 23: Arbab Zahir Kasi, a former provincial president of the Awami National Party, was kidnapped here on Wednesday.

The ANP has given a call for a complete strike in the city on Thursday to protest against and to condemn the kidnapping.

Farooq, a son of Mr Kasi, told newsmen that his father, along with driver Ihsanullah, had left home in the morning and three gunmen intercepted the car at Motiram corner of the Patel road and forced him to board their car.

According to the driver, the kidnappers who were speaking Urdu snatched the key and a mobile phone.

Mr Farooq said his father had no enmity with anyone.

Police said the driver had been asked about details of the incident.

Police official Arif Nawaz told newsmen that the case was being investigated and expressed the hope that the culprits would be nabbed soon.

Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch condemned the kidnapping and said in a statement that he had directed police and other security agencies to recover the ANP leader.

Soon after the incident, a large number of people belonging to the Kasi tribe and ANP activists gathered at the house of Arbab Kasi and protested against the kidnapping.

They said that incidents of kidnapping for ransom had increased to such an extent that even the chief of a tribe was not safe in the city.

A large number of youths burnt tyres at several places, hurled stones at shops and fired in the air.

Traders and shopkeepers in main bazaars of the city soon shut their shops.Members of the ANP’s organising committee Abdul Jabbar Kakar, Rashid Nasar and Malik Obaidullah Kasi said at a press conference that their party had decided to urge traders to observe a complete strike on Thursday.

They said the party would hold protest rallies against growing incidents of kidnapping. They urged the government to take the matter seriously and said that besides being a leader of the ANP Mr Kasi was also the chief of his tribe. People, they added, would strongly react if the government failed to recover him.

They expressed concern over the worsening situation in the city and said that because of the failure of the government and law-enforcement agencies to rein in criminals, doctors, university and college teachers, tribal elders and politicians were not safe in the country.

Ataullah Lango, general secretary of the Balochistan Bar Association, said in a statement that lawyers would boycott courts on Thursday to condemn the kidnapping of Arbab Zahir Kasi.