Source Dawn
KARACHI, May 31: Personal intervention of President Asif Ali Zardari led to the return of his close friend and prominent businessman Riaz Laljee, who was allegedly picked up by intelligence operatives early on Sunday morning soon after his return from Dubai, it has been reliably learnt.
Laljee returned home early on Monday morning after he was released by his captors.
Sources told Dawn that the president, after having been briefed about the incident by the police hierarchy following his arrival in the city from Dubai late on Sunday night, sent out a strong message to the quarters concerned: “Confront out in the open, instead of picking up on my friends.” It was apparently after this message that Riaz Laljee was dropped somewhere along the Hub River Road by his captors to give an impression that he had been taken out of the city.
However, his driver Kishan and guard Muhammad Ahmed were not released, police said.
The city police chief was quoted as saying by a private television channel that the businessman had not been harmed.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik and the chief of Federal Investigation Agency dashed to Karachi on Sunday to ensure an early recovery of the tycoon. Riaz Laljee was picked up on Sunday morning by around a dozen men from beneath the Shah Faisal Colony Bridge on Sharea Faisal.
The tycoon had returned from Dubai by a PIA flight and was heading to his Clifton home along with his driver and guard when the incident occurred at around 5:30 a.m. According to sources, Mr Laljee had met President Zardari in Dubai on Saturday.
Police had registered an FIR un der Section 365 – “kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person at the Airport police station on the complaint of Major (retd) Mohammad Tahir, manager of the businessman.
Following the incident, police found the abandoned Mercedes bearing registration number (AQS686) at Sharea Faisal from beneath the Colony Gate bridge.
At the time of abduction, guard Muhammad Ahmed tried to put up resistance but was badly beaten up by the armed men, the sources told Dawn.
Mr Laljee, who owns the Abbas Steel Group, was allegedly involved in rice exports through Rice Export Corporation of Pakistan in 1995-96, a time when the People’s Party was in its second stint in power.
Last year, investigations by the Competition Commission found the owner of the Abbas Steel Group was responsible for the crisis in the organization.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani removed Moeen Aftab, the chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills, after allegations of corruption.
Mr Aftab was appointed to this job reportedly at Mr Laljee’s recommendation. During Mr Aftab’s stewardship the Mills accumulated losses of Rs 12 billion in record time.
Two of the companies cited in the scandal are owned by Mr Laljee. This was one of the cases due to which the government earned the wrath of the Supreme Court.
Last year, the Competition Commission of Pakistan’s investigation found that the owner of the Abbas Steel Group was responsible for the Pakistan Steel Mills crisis.
In 1996, Laljee left Pakistan and returned to the country only two years ago after the Pakistan People’s Party came to power.
Repeated attempts to obtain a police version went in vain, ostensibly because of intelligence agencies’ alleged involvement in the abduction.
Sources told Dawn that a new grey coloured and an old white coloured police mobile, along with three private cars, were used in picking up the businessman.
The sleuths must have had prior information about positioning of security cameras.
This is borne out by the fact that they had thus positioned themselves under the Colony Gate Bridge to avoid exposure to the cameras.
Sources familiar with such crimes feel that the method employed in the abduction bore all the hallmarks of an operation by intelligence agencies. “Neither the Taliban nor kidnappers use 12 people for abductions,” an expert painted out.
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