ISLAMABAD, 26 April 2005 — A Pakistani embassy staffer who was kidnapped in Iraq has been released and called home to tell his family he’s fine. Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz announced the release of Malik Javed, an assistant in the Pakistani Embassy in Baghdad who was abducted April 9.
“I have a good news to share with the nation, a Pakistani official who was kidnapped in Iraq has been released and is safe,” Aziz announced during a function Sunday night to felicitate the Pakistani team for its victory against India in the recently concluded cricket series.
“I went out of this program to get the latest news on Malik Javed, who would be back in Pakistan in three days. We have succeeded in negotiating his release and he is free. That is a big news for Pakistan,” Aziz said.
The Dawn newspaper quoted yesterday Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani as saying that the kidnappers had not tortured Javed and treated him well. Malik called home to tell his family he’s fine, officials and relatives said yesterday.
Malik Mohammed Javed, 48, was abducted April 9 in Baghdad after leaving his residence to pray at a mosque. Pakistani officials said he was freed on Sunday and is now at the Pakistan Embassy in the Iraqi capital. After his abduction, Pakistan said he was taken by a previously unknown militant group, Omar Bin Khattab, which had demanded a ransom.
However, Jilani yesterday would not identify the kidnappers. Asked if any ransom was paid, he just said that Javed’s release was “unconditional.”
He told reporters that a team of Pakistani negotiators that had traveled to Iraq, the Iraqi government and friendly countries — which he did not name — had helped secure Javed’s freedom — but gave no details.
He said that Javed was due to return to Pakistan in one or two days.
A cousin of Javed, Malik Abid, said yesterday that relatives were gathering at the freed man’s village home on the outskirts of Islamabad to celebrate his release and welcome him when he returns.
Abid said that Javed phoned home late Sunday, soon after the Pakistan government announced that he was safe.
“He called to tell everyone that he is fine,” Abid said.
Al-Jazeera satellite television had aired a video that claimed to show Javed after his abduction. Javed’s kidnappers had allowed him to speak to Pakistani officials several times.
Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror in Afghanistan, but it opposed the US-led attacks in Iraq and refused to send troops. Javed’s son, Bilal Malik, said that Aziz had called him late Sunday to tell him his father had been freed.
“We got a call from the prime minister at 11:30. It was a brief call from him and I spoke with him,” he said. “He said ‘I have good news and it is that your father has been released. Congratulations to you.”’
