QUETTA, June 16: Armed men looted a journalist and his two companions while they were returning to Quetta from Khuzdar on Friday evening after attending a media workshop.

According to Levies Force sources, Shahzada Zulfiqar, bureau chief of Pakistan Today, was travelling in a rented car when he was intercepted by four men in a car with tinted glasses on the Quetta-Karachi highway in Zara area, about 20km from Khuzdar.

They pulled the journalist and his two companions out of the car, tied their hands, blindfolded them and took them towards a mountainous area in their vehicle.

After driving for about half an hour, the armed men stopped and offloaded the three persons at a good distance from the highway.

They took away the rented car, two laptops, four cellphones, two digital cameras and Rs60,000 in cash.

Before leaving, they asked the driver to bring Rs500,000 if he wanted his car back.