Pakistani police have arrested four suspects in connection with the kidnapping of Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, police officials said on Saturday.
The four suspects identified only as Javed, Vikki, Sarwar and Ijaz were picked up from the slums of Gulberg in Lahore late on Friday night, police spokesman Niyab Haider told PTI. The suspects are being interrogated by policemen who were investigating the abduction. He denied that the Taseer family and police were negotiating with the kidnappers.
"The kidnappers have not yet contacted the family," Haider said. Shahbaz Taseer, 27, was kidnapped by armed men near his office in Gulberg on August 26. Five other suspects detained earlier by police have been released as nothing was established against them, officials said. Police had also taken into custody some associates of Mumtaz Qadri, the police guard who gunned down governor Salmaan Taseer, but it could not be ascertained whether they had been released.
Though investigators said they had not got any clues from the suspects, they believe Qadri's case was in some way linked to the kidnapping. Seven police teams are working in collaboration with intelligence agencies on different leads in the case but have not had any success so far. Salmaan Taseer was gunned down by his guard in Islamabad on January 4. Qadri later confessed that he had killed the Punjab governor for opposing the controversial blasphemy law.
Religious and extremist groups had issued warnings to both the courts and the government not to convict Qadri, saying he had done something "commendable" by killing a "blasphemer".
