Dera Ismail Khan (Pakistan): A Pakistani army colonel was kidnapped when he was waiting for some people to attend his father's funeral. The terrorists kidnapped the colonel along with three other people. The other people were relatives of the colonel. The terrorists did not know that the colonel was going to attend his father's funeral. The colonel's kidnapping created panic in the Pakistani army. According to sources, it is believed that when the terrorists came to know that the colonel was going to attend his father's funeral, they released everyone. But so far no one has certified the release of the hostages. 

Militants on Saturday released four people, including an army officer, who were kidnapped three days ago from Dera Ismail Khan, a former stronghold of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The Pakistani army gave this information. The army said that the terrorists kidnapped Lieutenant Colonel Khalid Amir on Wednesday when he was waiting in the mosque for people to attend his father's funeral. The army said in a statement that the "unconditional release" of Lieutenant Colonel Khalid and his three relatives was possible due to the intervention of tribal elders and "all four kidnapped people have returned to their homes safely."

Did the terrorists' hearts melt after the kidnapping?

The question is whether the terrorists' hearts melted after knowing that the colonel was in pain after the kidnapping, the Pakistani army has not given any answer to this. But everyone is surprised by the unconditional release. The army did not give any other information regarding the incident. No organization had taken responsibility for the kidnapping of a military officer and his three relatives in the troubled Dera Ismail Khan area of ​​​​Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of north-west Pakistan. However, in a video statement released a few hours after the kidnapping, two kidnapped people were seen saying that they were in the custody of Pakistani Taliban. They were also seen requesting the government to accept all the demands of the kidnappers in the video.

However, the demands were not clarified in the video. The TTP often targets security forces in Pakistan, but such incidents of kidnapping and release are rare. The TTP is a separate organization from the Afghan Taliban, but there are deep ties between the two. The TTP has been emboldened since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 2021.