ISLAMABAD: A well-known Pakistani journalist who has long criticised the military and judicial establishment was freed late on Tuesday (Jul 21) after uniformed men had snatched him off an Islamabad street in broad daylight.
Matiullah Jan, a freelancer who has worked for numerous local and foreign media outlets, had been bundled into the back of a car around midday outside a school in the capital, where he had come to see his wife.
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His apparent abduction prompted a swift outcry from fellow journalists and a campaign to free Jan soon trended on Twitter.
"There were more than five people – some in civilian clothes, others in black uniforms – who forcibly picked up my husband," his wife Kaneez Sughra told AFP in a phone interview.
Security footage captured by the school where Sughra teaches shows several men force Jan into a sedan outside the main gate.
Jan was released late Tuesday night, his younger brother told AFP.
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Kaneez Sughra, wife of Pakistani journalist Matiullah Jan, displays a photograph of her husband on her mobile phone; Jan was freed late in the day. (Photo: AFP/Aamir Qureshi)
"I have talked to Matiullah Jan, he is safe, alright and on his way home," Shahid Akbar Abbasi said, adding it was too soon to know what had happened to Jan.
An Islamabad police spokesman said officers had begun gathering information in the case.
The military's media department did not respond to requests for comment.
Sughra said her husband had been followed by unknown men in recent weeks. In 2017, an unidentified assailant threw a brick at his car.
Jan's apparent abduction came a day before he was set to appear before Pakistan's top court, where he was facingRead More – Source
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