RAWALPINDI: (APP) An Intelligence Based Operation (IBO) helped safe recovery of Awais Shah the kidnapped son of Chief Justice of Sindh High Court, Director General Inter Services Relations (ISPR) Lt. General Asim Saleem Bajwa here on Tuesday said.
Awais was kidnapped from Karachi on June 20.
Addressing a press briefing DG ISPR said that following intelligence reports regarding possible transportation of the kidnapped son of Chief Justice, the law enforcement agencies had intensified the checking of exit points in Dera Ismail Khan.
In the wee hours on Tuesday a Blue color "Surf" was signaled to stop at a checkpoint on the road leading towards Tank in the outskirts of DI Khan. The vehicle driver instead of halting it attempted to sped away while crossing the divider of the road.
Seeing the situation a sniper posted at the picket targeted the driver and effectively foiled his bid to flee. Soon the vehicle was stopped and two persons disembarked from the vehicle and started firing towards the check post.
Simultaneously, they attempted to escape from the scene but were shot and killed in the cross fire.
On search of the vehicle a burqa clad person was found inside, who was unable to reply the questions of the personnel searching the vehicle The person, immediately after removing tape from his mouth uttered his name as Awais Shah, kidnapped son of Chief Justice Sindh High Court.
After ascertaining the identity, Awais Shah was taken to a nearby Wing of FC where he was released from the shackle and the handcuff.
Earlier we had intercepted some technical information about the transportation of kidnapee to Afghanistan thus the security forces had intensified checking of the area, he said adding these technical information were with us for the last about three days.
The Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, he said, soon after the recovery of Awais Shah, called Chief Justice of Sindh High Court and gave him information about the safe recovery of his son.
He also congratulated the Chief justice, he added.
Later in the day he said, Awais Shah was taken to Karachi in a special aircraft to let him meet his parents.
Answering a question regarding the identity of kidnapper group of the son of Chief Justice, he said they are members of a splinter group of "TTP" which have some links with other terrorist outfits.
However, he said further details could be divulged only after debriefing of the recovered kidnapee, who is presently in Karachi.
He said considerable decrease in the incidents of terror speak about the success of operation Zarb-e-Azb. "We had a number of threats from the terrorists during Ramzan and on Eid ul Fitr and all those were effectively neutralized jointly by the Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agencies."
He reiterated that IBOs and Combing Operations across the country would continue till the overpowering of the facilitator and abettors of terrorists.
He said till this day around 19,800 IBOs have been carried out across the country according to which scores of terrorists have been arrested while a number of others have been killed.
When asked to comment on the trend of targeting the family members of high dignitaries by the terror outfits, he agreed with the questioner saying, it is one of the tactics being used by the terrorists.
Appreciating the role of media, he expressed the hope that it will continue its positive role through objective reporting.