A Co Armagh man who had been missing for three days was found alive, suffering multiple gunshot wounds, at the weekend. Mr Mark Kelly (24), who was forced into a van by five masked men on Wednesday night, had wounds to his hands, ankles and an elbow.
He was discovered at about 8 p.m. on Saturday, on the Ballymoyer Road near Newtownhamilton.
According to security sources the Provisional IRA carried out the attack.
Mr Kelly was taken to Daisy Hill Hospital and transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where his condition was described as stable last night.
He had been abducted outside his house in Greenpark Manor close to Armagh city centre just before midnight on Wednesday.
A burned-out white van fitting the description of the van used in the abduction was found by British security forces near Derry noose in south Armagh on Friday evening.
Security sources suggest that the victim had been issued with a warning by the paramilitary organisation about six months ago but had not heeded it. Mr Kelly is the father of a 10-week-old baby.
The Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for Newry and Armagh, Mr Danny Kennedy, said such violent actions had no place in a decent society.
"All law-abiding people would be rightly horrified that such barbarity and thuggery could take place," he said.
An SDLP councillor in Armagh, Mr Pat Brannigan, said he was glad Mr Kelly had turned up alive and condemned the organisation responsible.
"It must have been a terrible ordeal for him and his family," he said.
Mr Vincent McKenna of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Bureau said he believed the IRA had been used to settle a "personal" dispute with Mr Kelly. "It wouldn't be the first time that something like this has happened," he added.
An RUC spokesman said officers were still searching for a motive for the abduction and shooting.
In a separate incident, a 47-year-old man was shot in his leg and torso in predominantly loyalist east Belfast on Saturday night.
A masked gunman confronted the victim in the Riada Close area off the Newtownards Road at around 7 p.m. and opened fire.
The RUC has not confirmed that the attack was paramilitary-related.
Meanwhile, a man is due to appear in Antrim Magistrates' Court today on a charge of attempted murder. It follows an incident in the Springfield Estate in the town early on Saturday, in which a 30-year-old woman was stabbed.
Police described the incident as domestic, and the woman is said to be in a "serious but stable" condition in hospital.
A man was in hospital in Belfast last night after a shooting in the loyalist Tiger's Bay area of the city.
He sustained a gunshot wound to his leg in the shooting, which took place shortly before 8 p.m.