Kidnap Victim Thrilled With Man United Shirt

A Pakistani man who was held hostage by Islamist militants for nearly five years has received a signed jersey from Manchester United.

The club sent the shirt to Shahbaz Taseer after he revealed that listening to their matches kept him "sane" while he was in captivity.

Mr Taseer, the son of a murdered Punjab governor, was captured by gunmen in his hometown Lahore in August 2011 as he drove to work. He was released in March.

Last month, he described in chilling detail how he was flogged, shot and had his nails pulled out by his kidnappers.

But he held on to his sanity by following the progress of his favourite 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," Mr Taseer, who is in his early thirties, wrote in Pakistan's Daily Times newspaper.

On Saturday he tweeted a picture of himself wearing the famous red shirt.

"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.

Since his release, Mr Taseer and his wife Maheen have been posting updates on Twitter about how he is settling back into regular life.

Months before he was kidnapped, his father Salmaan Taseer was shot dead in early 2011 by his own bodyguard for opposing the country's blasphemy laws, which critics say are used to target religious minorities.

The exact circumstances of Mr Taseer's release are unclear.

He told CNN 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.

Earlier this year, Argentinian football star Lionel Messi sent two jerseys to a five-year-old Afghan boy who became an internet sensation when he was pictured wearing a plastic bag with "Messi" scrawled on it in marker pen.