Sigh of relief: Missing child found after 11 days

Police arrest three suspects

FAISALABAD:

An eight-year-old, who had gone missing 11 days ago, was recovered by the police on Sunday. Factory Area police said they had arrested the three men accused of kidnapping the child.

CPO Afzaal Kausar held a press conference at the Police Lines on Sunday to announce this. He said eight-year-old Ahmad Munir, a resident of New Nazim Abad, was on his way to school in a rickshaw on April 13, when a silver car stopped in front of the rickshaw and three men got out. They dragged the boy out of the rickshaw at gunpoint and threatened the rickshaw driver with dire consequences if he raised a hue and cry.

Kausar said the abductors used the rickshaw driver’s cell phone to call up the boy’s mother Iram Munir and demanded Rs10 million as ransom. They threatened Munir with dire consequences if she informed the police.

Munir, however, contacted Factory Area police who registered a case under Section 365-A of Pakistan Penal Code (kidnapping). The police report was kept a secret, Kausar said. A special team comprising Factory Area DSP Malik Muhammad Khalid, Factory Area SHO Sub Inspector Nadeem Anjum, Sargodha Road SHO Sub Inspector Iram Raza and Samanabad SHO Sub Inspector Khalil Ghumman, was formed to trace the missing child.

In the meantime, Munir paid the kidnappers Rs1.9 million as ransom. They did not release the child and instead sent her a video of the child and demanded full payment of the ransom.

The police tracked the cell phone the abductors had been using and arrived at the location where they had held the child hostage. Umar Cheema, son of Nisar Ahmad Cheema, a resident of Chak 226-RB, Malkhanwala; Raheel Liaquat, son of Liaqat Ali Arain, a resident of New Nazim Abad; and Mohsin Ali Jatt, son of Muhammad Sadiq, a resident of Naseer Abad Muhallah, Nishatabad, were arrested. Kausar said they had found the child safe and sound.

The CPO said that the police team had seized weapons and Rs1.75 million from the suspects.

Kausar said their initial interrogations had revealed that Raheel Liaquat had masterminded the plan to seek revenge from Iram Munir for whom he had nursed an old grudge.

Kausar said the police were conducting raids to arrest two other suspects – Bilal Bajwa, son of Abdur Rauf, a resident of Chak 226-RB, Malkanwala, and Muhammad Irfan Sheikh, son of Muhammad Idrees, a resident of Chak 39-JB, Dabora.

The CPO announced cash prize of Rs100,000 for Factory Area SHO SI Nadeem Anjum and Rs20,000 each for Sargodha Road SHO SI Iram Shah and Samanabad SHO SI Khalil Ghumman.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2016.