The son of a slain Pakistani governor was rescued by Pakistani security agents on March 8 -- nearly five years after he was abducted by militants in the eastern city of Lahore.
Government spokesman Anwarul Haq Kakar said Pakistani intelligence agents, counterterrorism police, and paramilitary forces carried out the rescue operation near Quetta in the Kuchlak area of Balochistan Province.
The abduction of Shahbaz Taseer in August 2011 took place eight months after his father, secular Governor Salman Taseer, was assassinated in Islamabad by his body guard over accusations of blasphemy.
Governor Taseer had been a prominent public figure who was arguing for the reform of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
Governor Taseer's assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, was hanged on February 29 at a prison in Rawalpindi, prompting protests in several cities by conservative Islamists who saw the assassination as justified.
