Shahbaz Taseer breathes freely after 1,652 days

LAHORE: Late Punjab Governor Salman Taseer's son Shahbaz Taseer has returned home safely after four years, six months and 12 days (1,652 days in all).

He was abducted from his office in Lahore's Gulberg locality on August 26, 2011 or seven months and 22 days after his father Salman Taseer was killed by his own bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri in Islamabad on January 4, 2011. 

Qadri had shot Taseer 27 times all over the body with an AK-47 assault rifle. Shahbaz has become a free man after his father's killer Mumtaz Qadri was hanged till death on February 29 this year at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail.

Shahbaz Taseer, a witness in Mumtaz Qadri's trial, should deem himself very lucky because of the many celebrities kidnapped during the last 50 years, a few unlucky ones like the former two-time Italian premier Aldo Romeo Moro, were even killed by their captors.

Premier Moro was killed on March 16, 1978 after 55 days of captivity by a Marxist-Leninist organisation called the Red Brigades.  On September 25, 2014, Shahbaz Taseer's wife Maheen's tweet had made tears pour down many eyes.

Maheen Ghani Taseer, a psychologist, had tweeted: "162 Weeks- Each Friday, same request. Please join me in praying for the safe return of my innocent husband. Allah will hear us."

In an article in the "Newsweek" magazine on August 26, 2013, Maheen had written: "It’s been five Eids, two wedding anniversaries, and four birthdays since Shahbaz has been gone. Friends have gotten married, children have been born, and world-changing events have taken place all around us. And yet if you were to ask me what my overwhelming sense of the time that has passed has been I would say it has been one of stillness. It is as if nothing has moved at all. He walked out of that door that day, two years ago, and I am sitting where he left me, waiting for that door to open again."

Shahbaz had tied a marital knot with Maheen in 2010. The nikah ceremony of Shahbaz Taseer and Maheen Ghani was held at the Governor House. President Asif Ali Zardari was also present on the occasion with the family.

One hopes that former Pakistani premier Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani's son Ali Haider Gilani also returns home anytime soon. Ali Haider was kidnapped by several armed men in Multan on May 9, 2013 during an election rally.

By breathing freely, Shahbaz Taseer has joined the list of some high-profile personalities who were either rescued by state forces or were somehow released by their abductors.

 The list also includes an American General James Lee Dozier, who was working for Nato in Italy. He and his wife were kidnapped on December 17, 1981 by a Marxist terrorist group. The couple was rescued on January 28, 1982.

A Colombian presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, was kidnapped and held captive until 2008. He was kidnapped in February 2002.

Late Held Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter Rubaiya Sayeed was kidnapped by members of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front on December 8, 1989 in Jammu and Kashmir. 

At that time, Mufti Sayeed was the home minister of India in the VP Singh government. The kidnappers had demanded the release of five of their comrades; the government accepted their demands and freed the jailed terrorists. Rubaiya was kidnapped within five days of her father becoming the Indian minister for home affairs. 

Famous kidnappers include the former American world heavyweight boxing champion Riddick Bowe. He had kidnapped his estranged wife, Judy, and their five children in February 1998, hoping to reconcile his marriage.