Owais Shah, the son of the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Sindh High Court, had been abducted in broad daylight from the posh locality of Clifton Karachi, Pakistan on June 20. I am afraid these are dangerous times and those who are involved in such heinous crimes are better equipped and better trained with highly sophisticated weapons at their disposal. A good way of deterring such acts is to act swiftly and take the help of the social media and the public to issue an alert, like in the West to help notify security agencies and the general public to keep a look out and report immediately.

Shah was among the fortunate ones to be found quickly and rescued unharmed. Earlier, the son of the slain minister and human rights activist Salman Taseer and the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Reza Gilani’s son spent three and five years in captivity with the Taliban before being rescued.

I would first and foremost like to salute and congratulate our army chief General Raheel Sharif and the personnel of the Pakistani Army who were involved in this successful operation. The Pakistan army ranks among the world’s best. They will continue until every single terrorist has been exterminated and there is nowhere for them to hide and peace and prosperity returns to our homeland.

But abductions all over the world have become all too common and Pakistan is certainly no exception. So many go missing never to be found again. Often they are taken from public places in broad daylight. Those responsible act swiftly and with deadly accuracy.

In the case of Shah, he was in an area close to his house, bustling with people when he was abducted by men who came in a car, blocked his path and took him away with police mobiles and people watching helplessly from nearby, but doing nothing. By the time a missing persons alert had gone out, the criminals had travelled a safe distance with their victim.

What is needed in Pakistan is a well-equipped, strong, efficient and corruption free security force to help control this growing and alarming trend to abduct people from all walks of life whenever and from wherever. Often they are not so lucky and are never recovered.

- The reader is a retired teacher based in Dubai.