Investigators seek Pak Govt's help in tracing Swiss couple allegedly abducted by TTP

Islamabad, August 28(ANI): Pakistani investigators have sought the federal government's assistance for early recovery of a Swiss couple who was abducted last month and is allegedly in custody of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

"We have sought Islamabad's help to trace the whereabouts of Divid Oliver Och and Daniela Widmer, whose lives are in danger now," The Express Tribune quoted Zohb Division Commissioner Muhammad Ikhtiar Bengulzai, as saying.

"We have requested the federal as well as the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government to engage intelligence agencies to trace the location of the Swiss hostages," he added.

Police officials interrogating the case said that the two Swiss nationals were travelling from Dera Ghazi Khan when they registered themselves at a police checkpoint called Jungle Sirk. They wanted to leave for Quetta the next day (July 1) when some unidentified masked persons whisked them away on gunpoint at a small village known as Killi Nigah.

Bengulzai blamed the Loralai police for letting the couple go without handing them over to the Levies in the rural areas, adding, "We have suspended the police officials who showed negligence in this case."

He said the couple's vehicle- a camping van- was in custody of the district administration after it was found parked near Minara, a village some 15 kilometres away from the town of Loralai.

The TTP had reportedly demanded a negotiation comprising the exchange of the Swiss prisoners with Pakistani neuroscientist and terror convict Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is jailed in the United States.

However, the Swiss Embassy in Islamabad has ruled out reports of negotiations with any militant organisation at any level.

"We are only in contact with Pakistani officials for the release of our citizens," said a Swiss Embassy spokesperson in Islamabad. (ANI)