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ISLAMABAD: Senior officials of the Balochistan government this week said Daesh militants had abducted and murdered a schoolboy, whose kidnapping last year triggered a weeks-long protest in the province. 

Eleven-year-old Muhammad Musawir Khan Kakar, a third-grade student, was kidnapped from a school van by unidentified armed men while on his way to school in Quetta on Nov. 15, 2024. His family said they had not received any ransom call from the kidnappers since his abduction.

Kakar's relatives and other protesters had staged a sit-in protest at Quetta’s Unity Square for 14 days after his abduction. They ended the protest after Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti met and assured them of setting up a team to recover the boy. 

Kakar belonged to a prominent tribal family involved in the gold trading business in Balochistan for decades. 

"I do not merely want to condemn the brutal manner in which Daesh terrorists martyred the innocent child Musawir Kakar for ransom—I consider it my responsibility to ensure that those involved in this incident are brought to justice," Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti wrote on social media platform X on Saturday. 

Bugti said the provincial government had undertaken hectic efforts to recover Kakar over the past seven months. 

"The entire state machinery has now been mobilized against those involved in this incident," he said. 

Separately, Quetta Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat shared details of the incident. He said militants part of a Daesh cell operating from abroad had abducted the boy and demanded Rs3 billion [$10.58 million] as ransom, following which police and intelligence agencies launched a joint operation to recover him.

Shafqaat said six suspects were identified by law enforcers, out of which five were Afghan nationals and one was a Pakistani citizen. 

The Quetta official said over 1,000 CCTV videos were analyzed while over 2,000 houses and 400 rented properties were searched. He added it was considered one of the largest search operations in which police, the Counterterrorism Department, Intelligence Bureau and Frontier Corps took part. 

Shafqaat said the operation progressed to a key hideout where one Afghan suspect detonated himself while another was killed. In a separate operation, he said the other gang members were located. 

"It was confirmed that the child had been martyred and was secretly buried," Shafqaat said. "The body was recovered, identified through DNA, and handed over to the family."

He said the provincial government was taking legal action against those involved in militant activities from across the border.

"Rest assured all of them will be arrested," he vowed.