During the past one and a half months, twelve incidents of kidnapping have taken place in Bannu, in which a total of twenty-five people were abducted. Most of the abductees are government employees, and these incidents occurred in different parts of the district. Some of the kidnapped individuals have been released or recovered, but fifteen people are still missing.
In the Mandio area, Khawarij kidnapped Village Council Secretary Peer Qasim Shah and Hafiz Imran on their way back from a polio meeting. However, Hafiz Imran was released at the spot, while Peer Qasim Shah was recovered a few days later.
In Teri Ram, polio worker Samiullah was kidnapped, and in the Howaid area, retired Frontier Corps Balochistan officer Qaiser Khan was taken from his home, though he too was released later.
In Pirdal Khel, armed men took away more than one hundred livestock animals along with the guards from the Army Dairy Farm, and they have not been recovered yet. The next day in the same area, five WAPDA employees—Adnan, Naqeeb ur Rehman, Farhad, Abdul Wahab, and Javed Ullah—were also abducted.
From Merka Beira Subdivision Wazir, a well-known local figure, Malik Shab Niaz Khan, was kidnapped but later released due to public resistance.
In Bannu Township, the principal of a private school, Ashraf Khattak, was abducted over a financial dispute. Similarly, Rafiullah, headmaster of Government High School Musa Khel Zandi Falak Sher Mandai, and teacher Nisar Ali Shah were kidnapped and later released.
At the BISP center established in Nurar Exchange, armed men attacked and kidnapped AD Safiullah and supervisor Shah Khalid. In Mandi Baka Khel, unknown armed men abducted four vehicles of Mari Petroleum Company Limited along with their drivers and took them to an unknown location, but they were recovered the next day.
From the People Bazaar Dawood Shah area, Waliullah Marwat and Farmanullah Marwat, who were on an irrigation inspection tour, were kidnapped by about twenty to twenty-five armed men.
Similarly, near Gerida Shah Jahan, two employees of WSSC Bannu, Daulat Khan and Gul Riaz Khan, were abducted along with a tractor from a grain dump.
Due to the continuous incidents, a severe sense of insecurity and anxiety has spread throughout the district, and there is growing public demand for effective action from the security agencies.
