Kidnapping for ransom: ‘We wanted money for honeymoon’

Kidnappers say they had killed Abdullah on learning that police were following them

MULTAN:

A man and his fiancée who had confessed to kidnapping and murdering a seven-year-old boy have been remanded in police custody until Saturday.

Police said Ahsan and his friend had kidnapped Abdullah from near his house in Shah Rukn-i-Alam Colony on January 19.

They had taken him to Khanewal and murdered him on January 23 after his mother Rehana Bibi failed to pay the Rs10 million ransom they had demanded.

The kidnappers told police they had wanted the money to go on honeymoon.

Zarnab, one of Abdullah’s cousins, told The Express Tribune Rehana had gone shopping for her son’s birthday when he was kidnapped from near their house.

Rehana, a schoolteacher, had lodged an FIR with Shah Rukn-i-Alam police and started borrowing money for the ransom. She was able to arrange Rs10,000 only.

The kidnappers said they had killed Abdullah on learning that police were following them. Police arrested them on Monday and recovered Abdullah’s body from a canal in rural Khanewal.

According to an autopsy report, the boy had been strangled.

Separately, scores of residents of Shah Rukn-i-Alam staged a protest demonstration at Gaddafi Chowk in Multan to protest the murder.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2015.