QUETTA, Dec 29: A minority leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N, Santosh Kumar Bugti, has appealed to all tribal leaders and elders to play their role for the recovery of Maharaj Go-Saain Lakhmi, a religious personality of the Hindu community who was kidnapped last week.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said that 82-year-old Maharaj Lakhmi of Kali Mata Temple in Kalat was on his way to Khuzdar when he was kidnapped along with four other people.

Some leaders of the Hindu community, including Dewan Chand, Anil Kumar and Bhajan Lal, also attended the press conference.

“Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Dawood, Chief of Sarawan Nawab Aslam Raisani, Chief of Jhalawan Sardar Sanaullah Zehri and other tribal elders should come forward and play their role for the release of the Hindu religious leader,” Mr Bugti said.

He criticised the provincial government and said that it had failed to protect the life and property of the people as kidnapping for ransom had become common. He said that several members of the Hindu community had been kidnapped for ransom, with none of them being recovered by police and other law-enforcement agencies.

“The families of kidnapped people paid huge ransom to get their relatives freed,” Mr Bugti said.

He said the Hindu community had been facing robbery in their houses, shops and kidnapping for ransom for a long time and they now felt insecure in their own province. He said no government existed in the province and anti-social elements and kidnappers were free to do whatever they wished.

“No one has contacted the family of Maharaj Lakhmi and other people of the Hindu community so far,” he said.

He thanked the PML-N for taking up the issue in the National Assembly.

He said the families migrating from Dera Bugti during the rule of former president Pervez Musharraf were now facing great difficulties as no step had so far been taken for their rehabilitation by federal and provincial governments.

He demanded of the government to take immediate steps for the rehabilitation of Hindu IDPs. He said that he would talk to PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif over this important issue.