Awami National Party leader Malik Ubaidullah Kasi has been murdered in Balochistan, according to the police on Thursday.

Kasi was reported to have been kidnapped from Kuchlak on June 26. His body was found after 40 days, with torture marks, according to a media report in Samaa.

Kasi was a member of the central committee of the ANP. On June 30, members of his party staged a protest in Peshawar demanding his recovery.

ANP central general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain in a statement reminded authorities that Kasi's was not the first kidnapping. Former spokesperson of the ANP in Balochistan, Asad Khan Achakzai, was kidnapped in September 2020 and his bullet riddled body was found in the Killi Nosahar area in February 2021.

Police arrested a Levies Force official who confessed to killing Achakzai.

About Kasi's kidnapping then, Hussain said in his statement that "such incidents had caused a sense of insecurity among Pakhtuns and added that the situation in Balochistan was being disturbed through a well organised conspiracy and it was duty of the government and state institutions to ensure protection to lives of the people."

Social media users took to Twitter to express their horror on Kasi's death and express their condolences while paying tribute to him.