Lahore: An ISI officer who is also the nephew of Chief Justice of Pakistan was today kidnapped from Multan district of Punjab province.
According to police and eyewitnesses, Umer Jilani, an assistant director in Inter Services Intelligence, was going to office by his car when gunmen on two motorcycles and a car intercepted it at 9.45am in Garden Town area of Multan city, some 350 kilometres from Lahore.
They bundled him in the car and managed to flee.
Regional Police Officer (Multan district) Amjad Salim has confirmed the incident and said that a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising police and intelligence agency officials had been constituted to investigate the matter.
The RPO has also ordered closure of all exist points in the city and put the police on high alert. "We are trying to stop the kidnappers from leaving Multan," he said.
"The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban elements could be behind the kidnapping of the ISI official," a senior Punjab police officer told PTI.
In the wake of military operation in North Waziristan, the law enforcement agencies are anticipating a backlash from the militants.
"Mr Umer`s kidnapping is being seen in this context," he said. Umer is the nephew of Pakistan`s Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani.
Earlier in April last an ISI official was kidnapped in Lahore. Police have registered a case against the TTP on the complaint of victim`s father.
From Multan in May 2013, two days ahead of general election, the son of former Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was kidnapped by the TTP.
The TTP had managed to take Haider Gilani to tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and demanded release of key Taliban members from Pak jails in his safe return.
