Journalists on Wednesday staged a token walkout from the Senate to protest against government's indifferent attitude in recovering journalist Sohail Qalandar despite a lapse of 20 days. Sohail Qalandar went missing from Hayatabad, Peshawar, on January 2 and his whereabouts are still not known, after 20 days.
The Parliamentary reporters left the press gallery on the statement of the State Minister for Interior Affairs Zafar Iqbal Warriach, terming the answer unsatisfactory, and demanded of the government to expedite the efforts to recover their colleague.
Tariq Azeem, State Minister for Information, and Anisa Zab Tahirkheli, State Minister for Education, came to the press gallery and motivated the protesting journalists assuring them that the federal government would make all-out efforts to recover the journalist and would inform the House about the development on the issue.
As per statement of the State Minster, Sohail Qalandar was abducted on January 2, by five tribals and was first taken to the shop of Nazar Mohammad in Peshawar, then taken to the tribal area. He said that the area police managed to reach the shop of Nazar Mohammad on the direction of sniffer dogs after finding his car near Hayatabad.
Police has arrested Nazar Mohammad and his cousin and efforts are under way to reach the real culprits for which a number of tribals have been arrested. He said that the federal government is in close contact with the provincial government and political administration to recover him safely.
Zafar claimed that the motive behind the abduction was for ransom, but the impression was rejected by the journalist community, saying that it was totally professional targeting.
Hameedullah Khan, a senator hailing from FATA, objected on the statement of the State Minster questioning that despite knowing the real culprits, why the government had arrested hundreds of innocent men in the tribal area and failed to arrest the nominated persons.
Salim Saifullah Khan, Minister for Inter Provincial Co-ordination said that he was personally in contact with the concerned authorities to recover Sohail Qalanadar, who is a prominent journalist of Frontier.
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