Missing Pakistani journalist probing Indian citizen's case found after 2 years

A Pakistani journalist who went missing two years ago while following an Indian citizen's case has been found, according to officials.

The reporter was pursuing the case of Indian engineer Hamid Ansari, who was jailed in Peshawar on espionage charges.

Zeenat Shahzadi, 26 years old, worked as a reporter in Daily Nai Khaber and Metro News TV. She was allegedly kidnapped by unidentified men while she was on her way to work in an autorickshaw from her home in Lahore on August 19, 2015.

Shahzadi was "forcibly disappeared" while she was working on the Indian citizen's case, according to PTI. 

Ansari, meanwhile, had gone missing in Pakistan in November, 2012. He was arrested for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan to meet a girl he had befriended online, according to reports.

He was later sentenced to three years' imprisonment by a military court on charges of illegally entering Pakistan and "spying." Ansari is still in jail.

Pakistan's Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIED) Chief Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal on Friday evening said the journalist was rescued from a region located along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Thursday night.

"Non-state actors and anti-state agencies had abducted her and she has been rescued from their custody," Iqbal said.

He added that tribals from Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces played an important role in Shahzadi's rescue.

"Zeenat Shahzadi today has been reunited with her family in Lahore and we are happy for her safe recovery. I am thrilled that she is home safe," human rights activist Beena Sarwar said.

Shahzadi's brother Saddam Hussain had reportedly committed suicide in March last year. His suicide made Shahzadi the focus of headlines again in 2016.

"Helping an Indian prisoner -- Hamid Ansari -- in Pakistan has cost us dearly. My sister is missing and my younger brother (Saddam) who was deeply attached to her hanged himself after losing hope to get reunited with her," Shahzadi's brother Salman Latif had told PTI.

"My sister has not committed any crime in helping an Indian national," he said.

Shahzadi had filed an application with the Supreme Court's Human Rights Cell two years ago on behalf of Hamid Ansari's mother Fauzia Ansari.

The journalist's prodding had forced security agencies in the country to admit that Ansari was in their custody.

"Zeenat received threats from unknown persons who asked her not to pursue the case any more. We also asked her not to put her life at risk but she said she wanted to help Ansari out of humanity. When she spoke to Ansari's mother she literally cried along with her and vowed to help," Latif said.