QUETTA: The brother of Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) chairman Abdul Khaliq Hazara, Abdul Ali, who was kidnapped in Quetta on Thursday, was freed in the border town of Chaman on Friday.

Police sources have confirmed the release of Mr Ali and said he had reached his home in Quetta.

They said apparently the kidnappers had freed him after failing to take him to Afghanistan by crossing the Chaman border.

After recent firing incidents at the Torkham border, security has been beefed up at the Chaman border and no one was being allowed to cross the border without valid travel documents, said a police official.

About eight to 10 armed men kidnapped Mr Ali along with his driver and a servant from his office in Regal Plaza on Qutta’s Jinnah Road on Thursday and took them to the Spizand area on the outskirts of the provincial capital, where they freed the driver and the servant.

According to the police sources, Mr Ali’s family was reluctant to share details of his release.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016