ISLAMABAD: The vice chancellor of the University of Gwadar and three other staff members who were abducted earlier this month in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province have returned home safely, a provincial official confirmed on Tuesday, ending nearly two weeks of uncertainty over a kidnapping that underscored persistent security challenges in the region.
The abductions took place on May 13 near Mastung district when armed men intercepted a vehicle carrying University of Gwadar Vice Chancellor Dr. Abdul Razzaq Sabir, Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr. Zahoor Ahmed Bazai, Lecturer Dr. Muhammad Irshad and driver Muhammad Hatim on the Quetta-Karachi highway.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least developed province, remains at the center of Islamabad’s strategic economic ambitions, including the development of Gwadar port and major mining and infrastructure projects. But the province has long faced a separatist insurgency in which ethnic Baloch militant groups frequently target government officials, security forces and Chinese-linked investments.
“I can confirm that four individuals, including Gwadar University Vice Chancellor Dr. Abdul Razzaq Sabir and Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr. Zahoor Ahmed Bazai, have returned home,” Babar Yousafzai, spokesperson for the Balochistan Home Department, told Arab News.
“Further details will be shared in due course of time,” he added.
Authorities did not immediately say how the four men secured their release or whether any negotiations had taken place or ransom paid.
No group had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, though suspicion had fallen on separatist militant organizations that have previously abducted government officials and state employees in the province.
The kidnapping had triggered a search operation by security forces and renewed concern over security along key highways linking Gwadar to Quetta and other parts of the country.
Gwadar port, located on Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast, is a central component of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Pakistan has increasingly promoted Gwadar and wider Balochistan as future trade, energy and mining hubs, particularly as regional tensions linked to the Strait of Hormuz have sharpened focus on alternative trade and shipping routes.
But recurring militant attacks and kidnappings continue to complicate efforts to attract foreign investment into the province.
Last year, two senior government officers were abducted in separate incidents in Balochistan’s Kech and Ziarat districts. Assistant Commissioner Tump Muhammad Hanif Noorzai was later released by the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), while Assistant Commissioner Ziarat Muhammad Afzal Baqi remains missing months after his disappearance.
