WION’s Pakistan bureau chief escapes abduction; says he is safe

WION’s Pakistan correspondent on Wednesday shared a tweet from Dawn correspondent Cyril Almeida’s account saying that he had escaped abduction at the hands of 10-12 people who tried pulling him out of a cab.

Taha Siddiqui tweeted that he was on his way to the airport when he was nearly abducted. He is now at the police station where he says he is safe.

This is Taha Siddiqui (@TahaSSiddiqui) using Cyrils a/c. I was on my way to airport today at 8:20am whn 10-12 armed men stopped my cab & forcibly tried to abduct me. I managed to escape. Safe and with police now. Looking for support in any way possible #StopEnforcedDisappearances

— cyril almeida (@cyalm) January 10, 2018

In May 2017, Siddqui had filed a writ petition with the Islamabad high court alleging harassment by the country’s Federal Investigation Agency.

The petition says the FIA called Siddiqui, demanding that he appear before it at FIA headquarters for interrogation.

When Siddiqui asked the FIA why, he was not given a concrete answer.

But the FIA hinted that it wished to question him about his reporting.

When Siddiqui replied that his work was in the public domain and that …read more