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Brazen and in broad daylight: Salman Taseer’s son abducted from Lahore

Brazen and in broad daylight: Salman Taseer’s son abducted from Lahore

By Asad Kharal

Published: August 27, 2011

Screengrab of one of the suspects arrested earlier in the day.

LAHORE:

Misfortune struck the Taseer family a second time this year. Shahbaz Taseer, eldest son of slain former governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer and his wife Amna, was abducted in broad daylight from Lahore’s Gulberg area on Friday morning.

In the second high-profile case within a fortnight in Lahore, Taseer was abducted on the way to his office by at least three armed men.

The kidnapping brought the Punjab government, particularly its security apparatus, under sharp scrutiny – ironically, at a time when the provincial chief minister was in Karachi lecturing his Sindh counterparts on the worsening law and order situation in the port city.

Earlier on August 13, armed men abducted American aid expert Warren Weinstein from his residence in Model Town. No progress on the case has been reported yet.

(Read: Yet another kidnapping)

The abduction

Taseer left his residence in Cavalry Ground at 10:10 AM in a silver Mercedes Kompressor and was intercepted around 10:19 AM by a black Land Cruiser and a motorcycle, around 600 yards away from his office, close to MM Alam Road.

At least three men dragged Taseer out of his car and took him away, leaving his mobile phones and laptops in the car.

Taseer’s family was informed of the abduction around 10:35 AM when a company employee saw the abandoned car while passing by, sources said.

The kidnappers reportedly headed towards Firdous Market via Cavalry Flyover, which leads to DHA Lahore and the cantonment areas.

A traffic warden in the area reported a black Land Cruiser, a white Corolla and a motorcycle speeding through the area, taking a sharp turn, and dropping a Kalashnikov from one of the cars.

Suspects

“Our family has been receiving threats from the Taliban and extremist groups,” his brother Sheryar Taseer said, adding they could be behind the abduction.

Official sources, however, said that Taseer had some property disputes and had also been receiving threats recently. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the abduction.

The police retrieved CCTV footage from the area to help with investigations.

Security protocol

Taseer, who reportedly commutes in a silver Prado with Elite Force and police guards, was travelling without any police escort on Friday.

One of the guards posted with Taseer was taken into custody and had his weapon seized when the police questioned him at the crime scene.

He revealed that another guard was on leave and that he did not leave the house with Taseer but was later asked to go to the office.

According to the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Ahmed Raza, two police personnel, Liaquat and Sharafat, were posted with Taseer.

The Taseer family had a total of 17 police and five Rangers personnel posted with them, including five ladies police staffers, two assistant sub-inspectors and four head constables, police sources said.

Investigations

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif issued directives to Inspector General of Police (IG) Punjab and Chief Secretary Punjab to take immediate action. A Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team under Director FIA Punjab started the investigations and a National Response Center for Cyber Crimes (NR3C) team visited the office, home and crime scene to collect forensic evidence.

The federal government directed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the FIA to provide technical assistance to Punjab police for tracing the kidnappers and recovering Taseer.

Intelligence officials also visited the crime scene, and Taseer’s residence and office to collect evidence and information.

Meanwhile, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that all entry and exit points of the city have been sealed following the abduction.

All security agencies are investigating the kidnapping and a joint investigation team has been formed, he added.

Taseer, the eldest son of former governor Salmaan Taseer, is a director in several companies his father founded, including Pace Pakistan Ltd., First Capital Equities Ltd., Media Times Ltd. and First Capital Securities Corp Ltd.

Three leads for investigators

The law enforcement agencies are investigating Taseer’s abduction from three different angles, sources told The Express Tribune on Friday.

Taseer allegedly had a row with tenants at Pace shopping mall whom he had asked to vacate, owing to modifications to the mall’s basement. The tenants claimed damages and on being refused, threatened Shahbaz with dire consequences, sources said.

The Taseers also had a dispute with a major real estate tycoon of the country which came to light when both parties accused each other of malpractices through news items in publications owned respectively by them.

The second suspects are extremists, sources say. The Taseers have been receiving severe threats from extremist groups since Salmaan Taseer’s assassination. Shahbaz, particularly, had been receiving threats since August 10, 2011, family as well as intelligence sources said.

(Read: Taseer’s remarks about blasphemy law)

The law enforcement agencies are also considering Shahbaz’s personal dispute with an alleged girlfriend, sources added.

The police recovered at least three mobile phone sets including a BlackBerry, an iPhone and a Nokia E Series, besides a laptop, from his car.

The three SIM cards on these phones are in Shahbaz, his father-in-law and former bureaucrat Salman Ghani and an alleged girlfriend’s name.

Investigators have retrieved call records of all SIM cards, and his email records, and are analysing them.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has sought report from FIA regarding Taseer’s abduction. The agency has sent the report to the interior minister and the interior secretary.

Condemnations

Condemnations flew in from all quarters following Taseer’s abduction.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan visited the victim’s house and appealed to the persons behind abduction to release Taseer.

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid also condemned Taseer’s abduction in a statement and added that around 33,000 incidents of kidnapping have taken place during Sharif’s term in Punjab.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also expressed alarm at Taseer’s abduction and called upon the government to ensure his prompt recovery.

According to the HRCP statement, Taseer’s abduction “highlights the government’s inability to afford security and protection even to those known to be at high risk.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2011.

Three questions on Libya - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Three questions on Libya - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Libyans in the rebel stronghold, Benghazi, celebrated the rebel advance on Tripoli early on Monday [EPA]

A six month NATO-aided rebellion in Libya has advanced on the capital, Tripoli, in an effort to oust 42-year leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, comments on three key issues.

What's next for Libya and the national council?

It is time for the Libyan people to celebrate the end of a four-decade dictatorship. Once they sober up from the jubilations of their well-deserved victory, however, they will discover this is only the beginning.

Gaddafi has undermined, marginalised or obliterated many of the state institutions, including the military, and destroyed the political parties - indeed, political life in the country. There is much to restore and more to build from scratch.

Security, reconstruction and political transition are only a few of the challenges they will face sooner rather than later. More importantly, they will need to manage expectations of those who have given their all for liberty, freedom and prosperity.

Having said that, there is no need for alarm. Not yet any way. It's easy, even clichéd, to be pessimistic, even negative, about the post-revolutionary challenge. What is needed is optimism anchored in reality.

And judging from what we have seen over the past five months, there is much to celebrate in terms of building a steering council and creating locally based revolutionary groups from the bottom up that have been well coordinated and largely disciplined.

There have been disagreements and suspicion over the past several weeks, and the full story of the assassination of Abdul Fatah Younis is yet to emerge. And yes, there have been certain violations and acts of revenge, but considering the pent-up tensions and violence after decades of dictatorship and its terribly criminal behaviour throughout the past few months, these have been the exceptions to the rule.

The revolution has been a pluralistic, all-encompassing coalition of people from all walks of life. They paid attention to local and tribal sensitivities and established an excellent coordination strategy between the local revolutionaries and the national steering committee.

Unlike in Egypt and Tunisia where pillars of the regime, notably the military, remain in power, the Libyan revolution is set to wipe the slate clean and begin anew. Democracy is its only way to success.

The transitional council must remember its role is just that – transitional - and avoid all tactics that prolong its unchecked authority.

You mentioned Egypt and Tunisia. What do the Libyan developments mean for the Arab Spring?

Libya is much smaller and relatively less developed than its neighbours Egypt and Tunisia. It also has much on its plate and will be preoccupied with its own internal affairs for years, even decades, to come. That's why one doesn't expect the new leaders in Tripoli to play any major regional role in the near future.

However, the revolutionary contagion will only accelerate after the success of the revolution in Libya. The Assad and Saleh regimes should have much more to worry about today than last week as the latest revolutionary domino falls.

Under pressure from their people, the Arab regimes are going to have to act. Yemen is next, and Syria, while more complicated, will have to follow suit.

The same is true for the rest of North Africa. As a necessary bridge between Egypt and Tunisia, oil-rich Libya could play an important role in coordinating the three countries' future reconstruction strategies and their relations with the rest of the region and with the West.

What about the Western powers - notably France, Britain and the US - where does the 'success' in Libya take them?

First and foremost Western leaders need to wipe that smug look from their faces and make sure not to gloat about doing the Arabs any favours.

Certainly the NATO aerial bombardment did help, but this was a revolutionaries' victory par excellence. The battle was won first and foremost in the hearts of the Libyans, just as with the Egyptians and Tunisians before them.

Besides, after decades of complicity with Arab dictators, Western powers have much to make up for: They inserted themselves in the Libyan revolution after Gaddafi made genocidal threats against his people, but their interference was not necessarily motivated by humanitarian ends, rather more of the same geopolitics that led to befriending Gaddafi, Ben Ali and Mubarak in the first place.

Syria is far more complicated and Britain and France will need to keep out of it militarily.

That's not to say that the Libyans should be unappreciative for the extended helping hand. Better to have Western powers on the right side of Arab history for a change. And there is much room for cooperation and coordination in the future, but it should be done on the basis of mutual respect and mutual interest, especially that of the Arabs who are in every need of affirmative action.

Western leaders must also steer away from driving a wedge between those whom they consider moderates and others deemed "Islamists", as Libya will need cooperation among all its citizens.

Marwan Bishara is Al Jazeera's senior political analyst.

He was previously a professor of International Relations at the American University of Paris. An author who writes extensively on global politics, he is widely regarded as a leading authority on the Middle East and international affairs.

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