Frustrated With Government, Pakistani Man Turned To The Taliban For Help

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Fareed Khan

REUTERS/Khuram Parvez

Fareed Khan (L), 45, whose 11-year-old son was kidnapped by criminals more than a month ago, holds a sit-in with his family in front of the Peshawar Press Club in Peshawar December 16, 2013.

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Frustrated with the government's inability to help him, a man in Pakistan has appealed to Taliban warlords to rescue his 11-year-old son kidnapped by criminals more than a month ago.

"I knocked on the door of each and every government official but no one gave me justice to recover my only son," Fareed Khan told Reuters in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar.

"Now the Taliban are my last hope. I believe they will recover my son. The Taliban are good Muslims and good human beings. They don't demand bribes for the provision of justice."

Most people in Pakistan's insurgency-plagued northwestern regions live in fear of Taliban insurgents who stage frequent attacks against security forces and civilians as part of their campaign to topple central government and impose Islamist rule.

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Khan, 45, said he had no other choice in his quest to rescue his son, Furqan Fareed, who was kidnapped on November 5 in the city of Bannu.

Bannu is near North Waziristan, an ethnic Pashtun region on the Afghan border where many al-Qaeda-linkedTaliban fighters are based. State security forces have next to no presence there.

Government officials were not available for comment.

Khan said his son suffered from epilepsy and feared that he might die. He added: "Now my wife, my three daughters and I publicly appeal to the Pakistani Taliban to recover my son."

(Reporting by Jibran Ahmed; Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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