Football team sends souvenir to Taseer after he said listening to their matches had helped him through his captivity.
Shahbaz Taseer, who was kidnapped by Islamist insurgents, has received a signed jersey from Manchester United after revealing that listening to their matches kept him “sane” during his five years in captivity.
Taseer, who is in his early thirties, was captured by gunmen in Lahore in 2011 and returned to his family this March, a rare happy ending that captured the public’s imagination in a country that has been battling a homegrown insurgency for more than a decade. Last month, he described in chilling detail how he was flogged, shot and had his nails pulled out by Uzbek tormentors, but was able to cling on to sanity by following the progress of his favorite football club via a radio that one of his guards, a fellow United fan, snuck into his cell.
“For me, it was a window to the outside world. Getting soccer news kept me sane,” Taseer wrote in the Daily Times newspaper.
On Saturday he tweeted a picture of himself wearing the famous red shirt, expressing his jubilation. “OMG @ManUtd just sent me this!!!” he wrote. “I’m in shock! Thank you boys!” he added, expressing his gratitude to the squad members who signed the shirt.
His father Salmaan Taseer was governor of Punjab province and was shot dead by his own bodyguard for his opposition to the country’s blasphemy laws, which critics say are used to target religious minorities.
The exact circumstances of Shahbaz’s release remain unclear. He told CNN and the BBC that the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan wanted to use him for a prisoner swap. Later, after he came into the custody of the Afghan Taliban, he said he was released with the help of a senior militant but did not explain why.