KARACHI, Jan 27: The tip off, that helped locate the three traders kidnapped last month in Karachi, had been provided by the Military Intelligence, AIG Investigation Nayyar Hasnain Zaidi told a press conference here on Friday.

Two of the freed traders, Faisal Qaimkhani and Tauseef Qureshi, were also present at the press conference. The third victim was Majid Husain Zaidi.

The AIG said that the kidnappers had tranquilized the traders and shifted them to the interior of Sindh in ambulances. During the ongoing operation in Hyderabad, Matiari, Jamshoro and four other districts of the province, the police found the traders, who were in chains, kept in a hideout in Khat Lashkar village, about 22 kilometres from Dadu, in limits of Khairpur Nathan Shah police, on Thursday night, according to the AIG.

The operation, in which 800 police personnel are taking part, had been launched after about 11 men were kidnapped in Karachi.

The AIG said that eight dacoits were arrested and a huge quantity of modern weapons was recovered from their possession.

Narrating his ordeal, one of the kidnap victims, Tauseef Qureshi, said that he was picked up by kidnappers as soon as he came out of his house in Mohammed Ali Society on Jan 1. “They blind-folded and tranquilized me,” he said, and recalled that when he regained conscious, he found himself in a mud-built room.

During captivity, he said, he remained in chains and the kidnappers never talked to him.

Faisal Qaimkhani, who was kidnapped in Gizri area on Dec 29, said that he was taken away in an ambulance in sedated condition. He said the kidnappers repeatedly taped his voice for bargaining with to his family. He said he was also made to hear the voices of his family members on a tape recorder. However, he said, the kidnappers had never beaten him up.

He recalled that there was no guard present in the hideout when the police raided it to free him.

About Majid Husain Zaidi, the AIG said that he had been kidnapped in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Dec 15. The kidnappers, who had demanded Rs5 million for his release, had frequently beaten him up, he added.

In the statement issued by the police on Friday, the arrested suspects have been identified as Ghulam Mustafa, Abdul Ghani, Ghulam Shabbir, Mohammed Hanif, Imdad Husain, Ali Haider, Mohammed Ismail – all Hingoros by caste —, and Yameen Ali.

Their alleged accomplices have been identified as Zulfiqar Ali Hingoro, Riaz Kalhoro, Akhter Brohi and Nazeer Jamali, who are absconding.