KHYBER: Suspect militants abducted two employees of a private consultant firm from their site office in Tirah valley during the night between Wednesday and Thursday.

Police in the valley said they received a written complaint from the contractor of Tirah Sports ground project that some armed men under the command of one Najeed entered the rented living quarters of Eng Aamir Suhail in the Peer Mela locality of Maidan around midnight and introduced themselves as local militants of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.

The complainant said the armed men enquired about the identity of the three persons living in the room and then took along Eng. Aamir Suhail and foreman of the contractor Azmatullah while leaving behind their driver Kashmal.

Police said the two abducted persons were employees of MIES consultants, which was assigned the contract of building the first-ever sports ground in Peer Mela locality of Tirah valley.

The provincial sports and youth affairs department through an official statement acknowledged the kidnapping of Eng Aamir Suhail, a resident of Begukhel tehsil of district Karak, and foreman Azmatullah, a resident of Jamrud, and said that a complaint about the kidnapping of the two employees of MIES consultants had already been registered with the local police.

Sources in Tirah said a group of some suspected persons had visited the site of the proposed sports ground a day before the incident and enquired about the whereabouts of the private firm employees.

Residents in the valley had been complaining about the presence of armed men, supposedly affiliated with TTP and rising incidents of extortion and targeted killings.

A big rally held on July 25 organised by Bara Siyasi Ittehad also called for effective measures by the security forces against such elements which had once again disturbed the hard-earned peace of the valley.

Police in Tirah said they had started investigation of the kidnapping incident while no proscribed group or organisation had so far accepted responsibility of the incident.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2023