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Islamabad / AP
Afghan and international forces freed the kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister during a raid on an Al-Qaeda cell in Afghanistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan said Tuesday, three years after he was kidnapped in a hail of bullets.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, was “released from the terrorists” during the raid in eastern Afghanistan, the Afghan presidency said, adding that he is now at the Pakistani embassy in Kabul.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry also said in a statement that Gilani had been recovered “today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces”. Preparations are being made to return him to Pakistan following a medical check-up, it said, but offered no further detail. Yousaf Raza Gilani broke the news to a cheering crowd at a political rally in Pakistani-held Kashmir on Tuesday.
“This rally has proved fortunate for me,” he said.
“When I was about to board the helicopter (to come) I received the information that my son Ali Haider Gilani, who was kidnapped three years ago, has been recovered.”
Hundreds of people converged on the family’s home in Multan in central Punjab province as the news broke, dancing to drumbeats and passing around sweets in celebration. The brother of kidnapped Ali Haider, Abdul Qadir Gilani, told media he was “so happy today that I can’t explain it in words”.
“He is still in Afghanistan and soon he will be among us,” he said of his brother.
Earlier, Abdul Qadir said he believed his father had gone to Afghanistan on learning the news. “God has accepted somebody’s prayer. The prayer of those who love us,” a third brother, Ali Musa Gilani, told media.