Kidnapped in Quetta

The kidnapping of businesswoman Nilofar Abadan in Quetta on March 8, 2011 has generated concern within the Zoroastrian community. Nine years ago her husband Faridoon, former provincial minister, was kidnapped and remains missing to date, reported the dailies in Pakistan and India.

Niloofer was proceeding to Quivery Road to visit the Quetta Distillery owned by the family in the morning when the armed men intercepted her car at a speedbreaker near the Gurdat Singh Chowk and took her away at gunpoint. Her car was found abandoned in the Al-Gilani Road area. While her driver was released, there is no news of her whereabouts. According to media reports, soon after the incident law enforcement personnel blocked entry and exit points and launched a search operation in different parts of the city and some teams were even sent to the interior of Balochistan.

"Her three children Boman, Mitra and Farhad are doing what they can but they need your help,” wrote a cousin Neenaaz Dilucci galvanizing community and media awareness on the rationale, "The more attention this story gets, the better her chance” of survival.

"It’s easy for kidnappers to abduct a minority member compared to local people,” Sayeed Ahmed Khan, director of the Ministry of Human Rights in Balochistan told CNN adding, "Minorities don’t have tribal support and don’t have the security guards and weapons that locals do.” The fact that she was from a minority "coupled with the vast wealth the Abadan family had…made Nilofar attractive to the kidnappers,” stated an article posted by Nick Paton Walsh for CNN. As per this write-up the kidnappers telephoned her home five days later telling her domestic help the ransom would be about $ 2.3 million in rupees. Within the next five days they called again to halve the ransom payment.

The CNN post quotes her cousin Roshan Barucha as saying, "She had no enmity with anyone, no property disputes.” The Parsi community in Quetta, once up to 600 strong, has dwindled in recent years to five or six families, reported Barucha. According to observers, this recent incident "provides further evidence of how difficult life is for minorities as Pakistan grows increasingly fundamentalist and lawless…Police say there are 78 different criminal groups operating kidnap rings in Balochistan today who are growing in their power since the first kidnap blighted the Abadan family in 2002.”