SUKKUR, March 30: The additional session judge of Shikarpur, Mr Abdul Wahab Abbasi, has disclosed that he paid Rs2 million for his release to criminals who had kidnapped him along with judge Farooq Ahmed Channa, on Dec 4, 2004, while they were returning from Larkana to Shikarpur.

Judge Abbasi was talking to this correspondent when contacted after a local TV channel had broadcast his interview about his ordeal. He said that he had arranged the Rs2m ransom after selling some of his property. He, however, made it clear that he did not get any help from police.

“When people like us are left helpless, how would the common people survive,” the judge said. He said that all claims made by police about exerting pressure on the kidnappers were just eyewash. He said that he was under treatment in Karachi because he had lost three fingers of the left foot and two of the right.

Being a chronic diabetic, he said he had become very weak during the captivity because the food given to him was quite bad. He said that the government had not contacted him yet for disbursement of the ransom money. Mr Abbasi was of the opinion that most of the kidnapped people were freed only after payment of ransom.