The abducted son of former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Ali Haider Gilani in an interview said apart from the ransom and the abductors demanded to release high profile al-Qaeda prisoners.
Ali Haider who recently been recovered from Afghanistan, expressed these view while giving an interview to BBC.
His father was prime minister when their leader Osama Bin Laden was killed. PM Gilani also started an operation in South Waziristan. They told him they wanted to take revenge, Ali Haider said.
Ali Haider told that he was first taken to the industrial town of Faisalabad in Punjab province. He was then moved to the tribal areas of North Waziristan.
“I was chained for two years,” he said.
“I was kept in a small room, not allowed to see the sky for one year and two months. I forgot how the sun felt on my skin.”
Mr Gilani said he had a diary where he tried to keep track of time and jot down day-to-day thoughts: “It kept me sane.”
“I prayed a lot. I used to think of my son and say I have to survive for him.”
“I was in a warzone,” Mr Gilani said
“There were drones, tanks, mortar and jet strikes. Drones have a horrible sound, it’s like a huge bee constantly hovering over you. It wasn’t just one drone, there were three, four or five at one time roaming day and night.”
“They handed me over to the Pakistani Taliban in the Shawal area, in North Waziristan to keep me safe.”
But soon after, the Pakistani army pushed into the area and the Taliban militants fled across the border to Afghanistan’s Paktika province and took Ali Haider with them.
All through that time he was being watched closely by an al-Qaeda operative who accompanied him wherever he went.
His living conditions, however, improved with the Pakistani Taliban.
“I wasn’t chained, I was allowed to walk, to see the sun,” he said.
Mr Gilani had been in Afghanistan for just over two months, mainly with two militants one from the Pakistani Taliban and one from al-Qaeda.
On 9 May, his captors told him they had to vacate the compound because they received a tip off of an American air raid.
“We left at night and were walking for three or four hours when I heard helicopters then gunshots,” he said.
“I fell to the ground. Then a voice told me to take my shirt off, put my hands in the air and someone came and tied my hands.
“I said ‘My name is Ali Haider Gilani I’m the son of the former prime minister. They didn’t believe me at first but later they confirmed I was telling the truth,” he said.
Mr Gilani said that he later learnt that the raid had targeted the al-Qaeda militant.
“I was just lucky to be there,” he said of his rescue.
“It didn’t sink in till I was in the helicopter, the guy [from the US Forces] said ‘Mr Gilani, you’re going home’.”
‘It’s in my blood’
Mr Gilani was moved to Bagram airbase and was met by senior Afghan generals. The next day he went to Kabul and saw his brother for the first time.
“I was still in shock,” he said.
“A few hours ago, I was in the hands of the Taliban. I could die any moment. Now, I’m seeing my family.”
By that time, the news had spread all over Pakistan and celebrations had broken out in his hometown of Multan. When he arrived there his family was waiting.
“First I hugged my mother. She was crying and I said ‘it’s over I’m back now.’ Then I met my son. He’d changed so much, I didn’t recognise him but he did.
“I said ‘Baby, I’m your father’ and he told me ‘I recognise you Baba’.”
