Kidnapping gone wrong? Minor girl abducted for ransom found dead

Police traced the phone number the kidnappers were calling from

ABBOTTABAD: A minor girl who had been kidnapped for ransom in Abbottabad was found dead, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said on Saturday.

According to CTD’s Muhammad Tanvir, four-year old Marwa had gone missing on Friday. Her family, which lives in Tanoliyan Jhangi Muhalla, searched for the girl but failed to find any clues to her whereabouts. On Friday evening, Marwa’s paternal grandfather Aslam received a phone call from an unidentified caller who asked him to pay Rs500,000 for the safe return of his granddaughter.

After negotiations, the kidnappers agreed to release the girl for Rs400,000. Aslam was asked to reach a spot near Frontier Medical College in Abbottabad. However, when he reached there the caller asked him to return home.

However, Tanvir said the family informed the police and gave them the phone number from which the kidnappers were calling. Police subsequently traced the number to a local youngster Tausif, a neighbour and close relative of the girl.

The CTD officials said that a police team took up positions around Tausif’s home and waited until he returned home at around midnight on Friday before apprehended him. While questioning him, police also checked the call records on his cellphone and found the number of Hasan Ali, another boy from the same locality. Police later picked Ali up as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2017.