Matiullah Jan, a senior Pakistani journalist, who was a vocal critic of the military and is a noted democracy supporter, was abducted and then released late Tuesday.
Jan was abducted from Islamabad on Tuesday and released after 12 hours in a deserted area in Fateh Jang by unidentified persons and for unknown reasons.
“My husband was abducted this morning outside the school (in the capital Islamabad) where I work,” Jan’s wife, Kaneez Sughra told Reuters.
“There were more than five people — some in civilian clothes, others in black uniforms — who forcibly picked up my husband,” AFP quoted Sughra.
Shibli Faraz, Pakistan’s Information Minister, had stated “It is clear that he has been abducted.”
Faraz had further said that Pakistan’s government would put in all efforts to trace Jan and identify the culprits behind the abduction.
Jan was not tortured during his abduction, sources said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) demanded Jan’s release while stating him as one of the many journalists accused by the Pakistani Army of sharing anti-state comments on social media in 2018.
During a security crackdown in the run-up to Pakistan’s 2018 general election, thousands of journalists and media workers were laid off.
The military’s public relations department has not responded to a request for comment on Matiullah Jan’s abduction.
Jan currently faces a court case for a Twitter post criticizing Pakistan’s Supreme Court judges, for which he was due to appear in court on Wednesday.