The Pakistani Taliban have never officially confirmed their involvement in the kidnapping, but a militant source told AFP Tuesday that an army operation in the tribal areas had made it "difficult" for the group to keep him. "That's why they preferred to set him free," the source said. Militant commanders have privately told AFP in the past Taseer was being kept somewhere in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan. The source Tuesday said he was moved after Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched in North Waziristan in 2014.
"Acting on a tip-off, intelligence forces and police went to a compound in the Kuchlak district some 25 kilometres north of Quetta", Goraya said. "We surrounded the compound and we raided it. We didn't find anyone. A single person was there and he told us my name is Shahbaz and my father's name is Salmaan Taseer." Anwarul Haq Kakar, spokesman for the Balochistan government, told a private TV channel: "I can confirm that Shahbaz Taseer has been safely recovered. He is in safe hands."
It was not immediately clear when Taseer had been found. Shahbaz Taseer's father-in-law Salman Ghani also confirmed his freedom to AFP, but did not give any details. A second militant source said the Taliban had been demanding up to two billion rupees ($20 million) for Taseer's release. Security analyst Imtiaz Gul said it was possible a ransom had been paid and that Taseer had been abandoned by his abductors once they received the money. The Pakistani Taliban "are a group of mercenaries with clear links to organised crime", he said. Former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who belonged to the same Pakistan People's Party as Salmaan Taseer and whose own son was kidnapped by suspected Taliban militants in May 2013, told a TV channel: "It is a very big day for Salmaan's family."
He added: "After this release, I am very hopeful that my own son will be freed." Shahbaz Taseer was believed to have been originally kidnapped by the radical Islamist group Lashkar e Janghvi and later handed to al Qaeda and then to the Pakistani Taliban, intelligence sources told Reuters. It was not immediately clear who his captors were when he was freed, nor whether they were arrested or killed in the operation.