Islamabad –A delegation from Lakki Marwat in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has met with the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad to request assistance in securing the release of seven factory workers who were abducted and taken to Afghanistan.

On January 9, the employees who worked in the Kabool Khel factory, the project of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, in the region of Dara Tang, were kidnapped.

Muffi Abdul Ghani Shah, the leader of the Jamia Haleemiya in Pezu, headed the delegation, which included Ranra Aman Jirga (Peace Committee) members.

At the meeting, they officially demanded the intervention of the ambassador to guarantee the safe and prompt release of the abducted people.

The Abduction and Its Context

The event took place on January 9, when a group of workers of the Kabool Khel factory was kidnapped by an unknown group of assailants.

The factory, which has been in operation since the 1970s, is tasked with the extraction of uranium from the region, a critical project for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

The kidnapped were said to be moved across the border into Afghanistan, a frequent method with criminal and militant groups that are active in the unstable border area.

A History of Instability and Uranium Extraction

The region of Lakki Marwat and Dara Tang has a long history of instability, which is worsened by its proximity to the Afghan border.

Militant activities and cross-border flows in the region have been quite rampant, making it a very hectic environment for both government projects and security forces.

The valuable nature of the work might make the personnel and facilities a target of groups that want to disrupt the operations of the government or leverage it by taking hostages.

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