Kashmore police said on Tuesday they had recovered a third person from among five people abducted by riverine bandits.

Shikarpur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amjad Shaikh confirmed to Dawn.com the recovery of Dr Munir Naij — a Muslim doctor who had been taken hostage by the bandits along with three members of the Hindu community and another Muslim man.

Police recovered two of the kidnapped people — Mukhi Jagdish Kumar and Jaideep Kumar — yesterday while Sagar Kumar and Mushtaq Ali Mumdani remain in captivity.

The timing of Dr Naij’s recovery remains unclear but state-run APP quoted SSP Shaikh as saying that the three abductees were recovered during an operation in the katcha area at Ghelpur.

A protest for the recovery of the abductees is being staged in Dera More — an area near the Sindh-Punjab border — since Friday last week.

Dr Chand Mahar, senior vice president of PPP’s minority wing in Sindh, told Dawn.com that the demonstration would continue until Sagar, a grocery merchant, was also recovered.

He quoted Mukhi Jagdish Kumar as saying that dacoits used to deal with him “politely” considering his old age.

Dr Chand — who is one of the individuals leading the protest in Kashmore — said Mukhi Jagdish Kumar, a 72-year-old businessman, told his community members that he was given vegetables to eat in captivity as he was a vegetarian but was also chained at times.

On Sunday, protests over their abduction were also held in several cities on Sindh as well, where calls were made for an operation by the army and Rangers against the kidnappers and bandits.

Yesterday, the Hindu community also held a protest in Jamshoro while traders kept their businesses and shops shut in Kashmore, Kandhkot, Badani, Karampur and Ghouspur.

The JUI-F’s provincial leadership supported the protest as did nationalist parties. However, a Hindu community leader regretted, that none from the mainstream PPP and PML-N had joined them in protest.

With additional input from APP