PRESS freedom campaigners have called on Pakistani authorities to investigate the abduction of two journalists just weeks before the country’s general election.

Gul Bukhari, a known critic of the military, was snatched from her press car close to her home on Tuesday night as she was on the way to the Waqt News TV station in Lahore.

Eyewitnesses said masked men — including some in army uniforms — dragged her away after they surrounded her car. Her nephew Issam Ahmed confirmed her release a few hours later.