According to the editor, the kidnappers were Nauman Ashraf, son of the AJK revenue minister, Shaid Sarwar, his public relations officer, and Suhail Rafiq, Muhammad Abshar and Muhammad Zarin, officials of the People's Students Federation (PSF), the student wing of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). The KPI news editor told RSF's correspondent: "They asked me to have published a six-column news story in favour of the minister before I could be released." The kidnappers set him free on 7 November only when Sardar Abid Hussain, the chairman of the state government's Pearl Development Authority, intervened. Sardar Ashiq Hussain met the local deputy commissioner on 8 November, but no arrest was made. He added that the police took the accused under their protection to the local sessions court on 8 November, which granted them bail. “They are roaming around in the same vehicle used during my kidnapping. Then, the minister's son warned me in a phone call of dire consequences if I travel to Rawalakot, my native town, to pursue the case. I cannot visit my parents and other relatives anymore." He met the Pakistani minister for Kashmir Affairs, Abbas Sarfraz, who told him: "We cannot interfere in this case because it will become a political issue. It may provide our rivals with an opportunity to claim that we are interfering in AJK government affairs.”

On 23 November, the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) threatened that its journalists would begin a hunger strike if the AJK premier did not take any action against the minister.