Zee Media Bureau
Peshawar: The Pakistani Police are still hunting for former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani`s son Ali Haider Gilani who was abducted last week.
The police have not yet been able to find Ali Haider, who was kidnapped by gunmen who shot dead two of his associates at an election meeting in Multan.
In a breakthrough though, police have arrested the head of the suspected group, which might have kidnapped Gilani, who had plans to contest elections from PP-200.
According to reports, the nabbed accused has been identified as Wazir Gul, the brother of Mullah arrested by police on Thursday from Marhati area of Akora Khattak.
Six persons were arrested in neighbouring Nowshera district yesterday.
Like the others arrested, Gul is an Afghan national. He is wanted by police for several crimes, officials said.
During a raid in Akhora Khattak area, police arrested four men and two women and freed another kidnapped man named Abdul Wahab.
Wahab, an activist of the PML-N party, said Haider and five other kidnapped persons had been held at the same place but the former premier`s son was moved shortly before police raided the hideout.
He said Haider had been brought to the place in an injured condition.
Police officials claimed Wazir Gul was the head of an inter-provincial gang of kidnappers and was being questioned on the whereabouts of the former premier`s son.
They said the hunt for Haider had been extended to the suburban areas of Nowshera city and adjoining Charsadda district.
No group has claimed the kidnapping and the Gilani family has not been contacted by the abductors.
Punjab Police officials have said they believe a faction of the Punjabi Taliban kidnapped Ali Haider.
Eyewitnesses were quoted as saying that abductors forced Gilani into a waiting car and were gone in no time. They gunned down his personal secretary Mohyuddin Bhutta and a bodyguard.
Ali Haider`s elder brother Ali Musa Gilani, a PPP candidate running for a seat in National Assembly, had appealed to the abductors to release him and said he was ready to sacrifice anything for his brother even his election race.
(With Agency inputs)
