Pro-Imran Khan Pakistani TV journalist returns home after being abducted

Islamabad, May 30 (PTI) A prominent Pakistani television journalist who went missing last week, apparently because of his support to former prime minister Imran Khan, returned home on Tuesday, his family said.

Sami Abrahim’s daughter, Zainab Sami, tweeted the “great news” her family received and shared that her father “reached home safely”.

Zainab thanked “everyone who helped spread the news” and made Abrahim’s return “possible”.

Abrahim went missing last Thursday, when eight people in four vehicles intercepted his car on his way back home from work in Islamabad, according to his family and BOL TV, where he works.

No one has claimed responsibility for Abrahim’s abduction, but it is widely believed that he was abducted by the country’s security agencies for supporting Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

Khan is demanding early general elections in Pakistan and his arrest in connection with a corruption case led to unprecedented violence on May 9.

Khan is under pressure to keep his party intact as dozens of leaders have abandoned it after the crackdown launched to arrest those involved in attacks on military installations on May 9.

Another pro-Khan TV journalist, Imran Riaz, went missing earlier this month and was yet to be freed.

Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan.