Islamabad Police register FIR after abduction attempt on WION's Pakistan bureau chief
Islamabad Police have lodged an FIR after the attempted abduction of WION's Pakistan bureau chief Taha Siddiqui.
"FIR has been registered. Islamabad police just confirmed. Thankful for prompt action," Taha tweeted on Thursday.
Taha had been on his way to the Islamabad airport Wednesday morning when another vehicle suddenly overtook him and braked in front of his cab, forcing it to come to a stop.
Taha said in his FIR that four armed men, three of them armed with AK-47s, the fourth with a pistol, got out of the vehicle and came towards him.
They pulled him out of the left rear door, beat him up, and one of them asked: "What do you think of yourself?"
Also read: 'Saale ko goli maaro ,' armed men shouted as they tried to abduct WION's Pakistan bureau chief Taha Siddiqui
Taha had told WION on Wednesday eveningn that he had at first thought this might have been a robbery attempt. But that he realised something else was afoot when the man spoke to him in "fluent English".
And that he now thought the men were trying to abduct him.
The men had thrown Taha back into the back seat of the cab.
Taha had at that time seen a military vehicle pass and had tried to flag it down. But, Taha said to WION and in his FIR, one of the men had gestured to the vehicle to keep on driving and it had. .
While Taha was in the back of the cab, with one of the gunmen sitting next to him, and another about to drive off, he had noticed the right rear door of the cab was open.
He jumped out, ran through the incoming traffic, and was able to make his getaway.
Taha has been critical of Pakistan's powerful military.
He was last year called in for questioning by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency which had begun to crack down on online criticism of the army.
The Committee to Protect Journalists had later asked the FIA to stop harassing Taha.