ISLAMABAD, Jan 3: Two persons were arrested for their alleged involvement in an attempt to kidnap a woman legislator from the Red Zone of Islamabad, police said on Thursday.

Qaiser Abbas, the station house officer (SHO) of Secretariat, told Dawn that one of the accused was the owner of an Azad Kashmir-based newspaper and son of a former law secretary of Pakistan. He said efforts were underway to arrest an accomplice of the two men.

The incident took place on December 29 but the police registered a case after four days because the accused had earlier introduced themselves as senior officials of the ISI, he said. The case was registered after the police verification showed that the accused were impersonators.

The accused were produced before the court of law which sent them to Adiala Jail on a 14-day judicial remand.

The police said the MNA, elected on a reserved seat for women from Punjab, was coming to the parliament house from Bhara Kahu when his driver ran into a tussle with three people riding a double cabin over honking and overtaking near Serena Hotel.

The occupants of the double cabin tried to intercept the legislator’s vehicle but its driver sped away. Her car was chased and again intercepted in front of the Foreign Office where the three men disembarked from their vehicle and tried to pull the MNA and her driver out.

They sought identification of the MNA, but when she asked them to first identify themselves, the three men said they were senior officers of the ISI, the police said. After this, the MNA’s driver sped away the car which was again intercepted near a police picket in front of Radio Pakistan.

As they engaged in an argument there, police officials deployed at the picket approached both the vehicles. When the MNA sought help from the policemen, the riders of the double cabin again introduced themselves as ISI officers and asked the police officials to stay away. As the policemen moved back to their picket, the double cabin also left the scene.

The policemen, however, passed on the registration number of the vehicle to the Secretariat police station which after verification declared its riders as civilians. Later, the police registered a case against the accused in response to the complaint lodged by the MNA on the day of the incident.