Ali Haider Gilani, Kidnapped Son of Ex-Pakistan PM, Freed in Raid
ISLAMABAD — The kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister was freed in a joint U.S.-Afghan operation on Tuesday, officials said.
There were scenes of jubilation and celebration across Pakistan after the country's Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that Ali Haider Gilani had been recovered in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials said the operation was in Ghazni province while Afghan officials announced Gilani was found during an operation to destroy an al Qaeda cell in neighboring Paktika. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.
Gilani, who is aged in his 30s, was being examined by doctors and would soon return home, according to a statement issued by the ministry. Pakistan said the raid involved U.S. and Afghan forces.
He was kidnapped in May 9, 2013, while campaigning for his father, former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, two days before landmark general elections.
The freed captive was "well" after having been recovered from an "al Qaeda-affiliated" group in Ghazni province, Afghanistan's Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal announced via Facebook.
A Pakistani security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media told NBC News that Gilani "was sold and exchanged by different terrorist networks, which explains how he made it from [the Pakistani city of] Multan to Ghazni."
Pakistani and Afghan officials did not release further information on the raid. The U.S.-led NATO force in Afghanistan said it was aware of the reports but would not comment on them.
"When we first heard the news, we didn't believe it and only believed it once the foreign office confirmed it," Ali Musa Gilani, Ali Haider's brother, told Pakistani TV according to Reuters. "Right now, we don't have any plans to celebrate. We are just waiting to see his face."
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which the Gilanis have been associated for decades, tweeted his congratulations soon after the news was announced.
His father was prime minister from 2008 to 2012, when the Supreme Court removed him from office by over contempt of court charges related to his refusal to reopen corruption cases against then-president Asif Ali Zardari.
Gilani's father was prime minister from 2008 to 2012, when the Supreme Court removed him from office by over contempt of court charges related to his refusal to reopen corruption cases against then-president Asif Ali Zardari.
His recapture comes just two months after Shahbaz Taseer, the son of a politician who was slain after being accused of blasphemy in Pakistan, was himself recovered after more than four years in captivity.
Salman Taseer was serving as governor of Punjab province when he was assassinated by his own bodyguard in December 2010 for defending a Christian woman on death row for blasphemy charges.
