Daily Times

HANGU: Khan Zaman Orakzai, a local journalist, who was “kidnapped” two days ago, was released and reached home on Sunday.

Talking to colleagues at Hangu Press Club, Zaman said that unidentified men had picked him up from Said Habib Market on Samana Road in Hangu on Friday.

“They blindfolded me and forced me into a car and drove me somewhere. After sometime they took me to a building to lock me up in a room,” he said.

He told the reporters that his captives repeatedly asked him the name of the organisation he worked for as well as accused him of reporting against them.

Zaman said: “I kept denying the c. harges against me and pleaded them to release me. Sunday midnight they blindfolded me again and bundled me into a carI was terrified and could not guess what was going to happen. Near Kohat I was thrown out of the car.”

He added that after getting released he went to Cantonment Police Station where Station House Officer Abid Khan took him to a local TV channel office and afterwards drove him to his home in Hangu.

He told his colleagues that he had no enmity with anybody.Local journalist fraternity expressed gratification over the safe release of Khan Zaman Orakzai and demanded the government to provide security to journalists and apprehend the perpetrators.

Earlier on Saturday, anxious office bearers of the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ) and Hangu Press Club reportedly registered a case at City Police Station, Hangu after one of their colleagues went missing.Certain sources said, “The journalist was picked up by officials of a security organisation.”