Zulfiqar Ahmed, the Chief Executive Officer of domestic beverage company Cola Next, was abducted by unidentified people in Karachi.
Witnesses claimed that on Tuesday, Ahmed and his friend Qaiser were travelling on the Mauripur road in Karachi, which connects the wharves to the industrial area of SITE, when their vehicle was intercepted by a black coloured wagon with blacked-out windows near the police training centre.
Masked men bearing arms jumped out of the vehicle and forced Ahmed and Qaiser to disembark before bundling them into the van and driving away.
After driving for a short while, the abductors let Qaiser go, but took Ahmed away.
A report of the abduction was submitted at the Kalri police station in Lyari, located adjacent to Mauripur Road. However, the police refused to lodge the FIR.
Cola Next has risen to prominence after a partial boycott of beverage products from foreign multinationals such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi for their links with the Israeli government. The SITE industrial area in Karachi hosts the bottling plants for Pepsi, Coca-Cola (Mehran Bottlers), Pakola, Nauras, and the upstart Kababjees Cola (Mehran Bottlers). Cola Next is primarily bottled in Lahore under the auspices of the Meezan Group.
Karachi was recently ranked among the least livable cities in the world, receiving an overall score of 42.7 out of 100. It performed particularly poorly in stability, garnering only 20 points.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, which evaluated 173 cities worldwide based on key factors such as healthcare, culture and environment, stability, infrastructure, and education, Karachi is ranked 169th.
Notably, other cities facing similar struggles include Lagos in Nigeria, Algiers in Algeria, Tripoli in Libya, and Damascus in Syria, all trailing closely behind Karachi with equally challenging living conditions.
The city achieved scores of 54.2 for healthcare, 35.9 for culture and environment, 75 for education, and 51.8 for infrastructure.