Two kidnapped Sikhs rescued in Khyber: Difference between revisions

Troops stand armed in Khyber. Khyber Agency has long been a den for criminal syndicates involved in kidnapping, smuggling, drug trafficking and car-jackings. (Dawn.com file photo)

Two kidnapped Sikhs rescued in Khyber Monday, 01 Mar, 2010: Dawn.com

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces on Monday recovered [alive] two of three Sikhs kidnapped for ransom in the country's volatile northwest, a security official said, days after the body of the third Sikh [who had been killed] was found.

The three Sikhs were abducted from the Khyber region on the Afghan border in January. The decapitated body of one of them [Jaspal Singh] was found last week.

Government forces launched an operation early on Monday and rescued the remaining two Sikhs.

“Some terrorists have also been killed in the fighting,” a security official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

Sikhs are a tiny minority in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, but a sizeable community has lived in Khyber and elsewhere in the northwest. Most of them run private businesses.

Khyber has long been a den for criminal syndicates involved in kidnapping, smuggling, drug trafficking and car-jackings.

Criminals are also believed to have established links with militants in recent years.

Three militants were also killed in a shootout with security forces near the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, while the bodies of five militants were found in the northwestern Swat region on Monday, security officials said.

Other News

Kidnapped Sikhs recovered in Pakistan: military (AFP) – 1 March 2010

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Two Sikhs kidnapped for ransom in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border were recovered alive Monday and are under the protection of Pakistani soldiers, the military said.

In a statement it said that security forces had recovered the two between the Orakzai and Khyber districts in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt, after they were abducted by "terrorists" in Khyber.

The tribal belt has been branded an Al-Qaeda headquarters by Washington.

The army said "some miscreants" were killed in Monday's encounter, but released no further details of the circumstances in which the Sikhs were freed.

The two Sikhs were part of a trio snatched by gunmen in hopes of receiving a ransom in the town of Bara in late January, officials said.

The third Sikh, Jaspal Singh, was beheaded after relatives failed to pay a ransom. His body was found dumped in Orakzai last month.

Pakistan's Sikh and Hindu communities are tiny. In the last year, hundreds have fled their homes after receiving death threats from the Taliban and other militant groups in the increasingly unstable northwest.

Most Sikhs and Hindus living in Khyber pay annual protection to the local militant group Lashkar-e-Islam, a Sikh community member has said, blaming the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the beheading.

TTP has become the most dangerous militant group operating in Pakistan, where a wave of suicide and other bomb attacks carried out by Islamist militants have killed more than 3,000 people since July 2007.