Investigators of the Lahore Police believe that US national Dr Warren Weinstein has been abducted by the same Taliban group that kidnapped Amir Aftab Malik, son-in-law of former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Tariq Majeed, as the pattern of the abduction was the same.
Sources in the Lahore Police privy to the developments believe that there was a strong possibility that the abductors would take Weinstein to Afghanistan. It was further learnt that two cell phones taken away by the kidnappers from Weinstein’s security guards remained activated for over two hours on Tuesday and their last location before being switched off was on the motorway from Lahore to Islamabad.
Citing similarities of the two abductions, an investigator of the Lahore Police said Weinstein was abducted at around 3:20am and Malik was also kidnapped from his Faisal Town residence during the wee hours. Meanwhile, the investigation team moved the security guards of Dr Weinstein to Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) in Chung for further interrogation.
A senior Lahore Police officer involved in the investigations confirmed that the looted cell phones of the US national’s security guards had remained active for some time. However, they were switched off near Ferozepur Road, he claimed.
To another question, he said that security guards had not been shifted to CTD, but they were in the custody of CIA Model Town. He said no ransom demand had been received so far.
