Pakistan deploys paramilitary forces to rescue abducted footballers

Six footballers in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan remain missing since they were abducted over the weekend in Dera Bugti district as provincial authorities deployed paramilitary forces to rescue the players.

Government officials confirmed to Al Jazeera that unidentified men kidnapped six players, all between the ages of 17 to 23, on Saturday while they were on their way to Sibi town to participate in a local football tournament organised by the provincial government.

“All efforts are being utilised to recover the abducted sportsmen and law enforcement officials have already launched a search operation in the area and we are expecting a major breakthrough in the next 24 hours,” Jan Achakzai, the interim provincial information minister, told Al Jazeera.

Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti also wrote in his message on X formerly known as Twitter, that paramilitary forces were conducting an operation to bring back the abducted footballers.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the abductions in Balochistan, which has been a hotbed of an armed struggle led by nationalist separatists, and its cities have been a constant target of rebels, as well as armed fighters and sectarian groups.

Families of the missing footballers say that the players were part of a group of 16 to 18 footballers who left on Saturday morning to travel to the town of Sibbi, situated roughly 166km (103 miles) southeast of Quetta, the provincial capital.

(Aljazeera)