Pak minister, two foreigners abducted by militants in Gilgit-Baltistan freed

ISLAMABAD: Militants on Saturday freed a senior minister and two foreigners in the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region in northern Pakistan following “successful” negotiations with government officials, facilitated by local clerics.
Colonel (retired) Abaidullah Baig, a minister in the GB government, and the two foreigners were abducted on Friday from Babusar Top — a mountain pass connecting the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with Gilgit-Baltistan — where the militants, belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), had set up road blockades. They were demanding the release of their jailed accomplices.
The minister was released around 3 am, said Muhammad Alamgir, station house officer of Jal area in GB’s Diamer district. “A local jirga (council of elders) comprising ulemas (clerics) and officials held talks with the militants,” he added.
“He (Baig) is back home and the road is open for traffic,” said Mohiuddin Ahmad Wani, GB’s chief secretary, adding that the minister was set free “unconditionally”.
In a purported conversation with a journalist shared on social media, Baig could be heard saying the militants had two demands: the release of their accomplices from jail, and imposition of Islamic law, with no women sports activities.
Official sources said Habibur Rahman, GB’s most wanted militant commander accused of the 2013 killing of 11 people — 10 of them foreign tourists — in the Nanga Parbat base camp, and about 200 of his men had blocked the road in Thak village of Chilas in Diamer on Friday, leaving travellers on both sides stranded.
Ziaullah Thakvi, a jirga member, said the militants demanded that their incarcerated fellows be released or moved to Diamer, and treated like other inmates.
Faizullah Faraq, another jirga member, said the militants belonged to the TTP and most of them were “outsiders”. “I could only identify two from Diamer – Habibur Rehman and Abdul Hammed,” Faraq said, adding that a majority of them were Pashtuns.
The GB chief secretary, however, said it was a “local group” of militants.
The TTP has carried out some of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan. Following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021, Islamabad had started negotiations with the TTP in Kabul that had recently ended in a stalemate.