Quetta: All 20 police recruits abducted from the Quetta Karachi Highway in Balochistan's Mastung district were safely recovered, police officials confirmed today.
The recruits were found in the Mangochar area of Kalat district, four days after unidentified armed men intercepted the vehicle transporting them home for the weekend.
A senior police officer confirmed that all 20 personnel were unharmed.
The trainees were travelling from the Kalat Police Training Centre to Noshki in a private passenger van when they were abducted on Friday, October 16.
According to earlier accounts by provincial officials, armed men stopped the vehicle in Mastung district and took the recruits to an undisclosed location.
The attackers also took the van but allowed its driver and three other passengers to leave.
Police said the recruits were from the former Levies Force, which merged with the provincial police. The personnel were from Balochistan's Rakhshan division and were undergoing training at the Kalat facility.
Following the abduction, security forces launched a search operation in the surrounding areas to locate the missing personnel.
The incident prompted concerns about the safety of police trainees travelling between their training centres and home districts.
The safe return of the 20 recruits concludes their four day captivity, but questions remain about the circumstances of their release and the investigation into their abduction.
