A senior Pakistani judge has been released after being kidnapped in the South Waziristan district of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, after his captors released a video of him pleading for his freedom.
District and Sessions Judge Shakirullah Marwat was abducted in the Tank district of the restive province's Dera Ismail Khan region on April 27 after about 15 men on motorcycles cut off the vehicle he was riding in and set it on fire.
Muhammad Ali Saif, a media adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's chief minister, said in an audio message sent to RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal on April 29 that Marwat had returned home after being released late the previous day. Saif did not provide any further details.
No group has claimed responsibility for the incident but a video published by counterterrorism officials on April 28 purported to show Marwat saying that the Pakistani Taliban -- Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- would not release him until their demands were met. It was not immediately clear what the demands were.
The police chief for the Tank district, Abdul Salam Khalid, told Radio Mashaal that an investigation and search operation for those responsible was under way.
Police and judicial services were restored in South Waziristan when Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas were merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in 2018. But due to the security situation, courts for South Waziristan and some other districts are located in neighboring areas.
Dozens of police and civilians have been killed in the province since late 2022, when the TTP unilaterally ended a cease-fire with the central government.
Residents have said that the security situation has recently worsened significantly in the Dera Ismail Khan region, particularly in the Tank district, as well as in other areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province's south.
A recent report by the provincial police's anti-terrorism department said that in the first three months of this year, 25 armed attacks have been recorded in Dera Ismail Khan, with 17 in the Tank district.
Recently elected Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari expressed concern over the security situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province during his speech to a joint session of parliament on April 18.