Pakistan says US-Afghan raid rescues son of Pakistani ex-PM

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's foreign ministry says a joint raid by US and Afghan forces has rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister from a three-year Taliban captivity in Afghanistan.

The Foreign Office says the Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar told Pakistan's foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, in a telephone call that Ali Hiader Gilani was found on Tuesday and is safe.

Gilani, believed to be in his 30s, is the son of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani whose secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People's Party's led several major offensives against militants.

Last year, the elder Gilani said the kidnappers demanded the release of several al-Qaida prisoners in exchange for his son.

Gunmen kidnapped the younger Gilani in May 2013, several days before the general elections in Pakistan.