Abducted child returns home after family pays ransom

Officials say efforts are under way to track, arrest suspected kidnappers

ISLAMABAD: A seven-year-old girl, who had been kidnapped from outside her house in the capital late last month, returned home on Friday after her family paid Rs1.5 million in ransom.

The girl ZN*, was reportedly playing outside her house in Bahria Town Phase-2 along with her siblings when two unidentified motorbike riders allegedly abducted her. Her father Ahmed Naveed said at around 10pm on July 27, he was in the garage of the house when he heard the screams of the children.

“I saw that my daughter’s bicycle was lying on the ground and two motorcyclists were speeding away with her,” Naveed stated in his application to the police. He added that he told the security of the gated housing society and even tried to chase down the suspects, but they managed to flee.



A kidnapping case was registered at the nearby Lohi Bher police station a few hours later. The child’s kidnapping also created a buzz on social media. But early on Friday, her family told The Express Tribune, the girl returned home at around 3am after they paid her captors to secure her release.



“The child has been recovered after paying the ransom,” the girl’s father said. He declined to divulge further details surrounding the case, maintaining that it could undermine ongoing investigations. He appreciated the police, who he said, had fully cooperated with the family.

“The police extended full cooperation to us. Chiefs of the civilian and military intelligence agencies also contacted us for help in recovering the child,” Naveed added.

He further stated that the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had also contacted his family and explained that they feared that the kidnappers may cross over into the Punjab from Islamabad, for which the provincial government was also involved in the case.

To a question, he said the ransom was paid with consent from the police and law-enforcement agencies. “We did not want to risk her life.”

However, he added that an operation was underway to nab the suspects involved in the abduction and hoped that the case could be solved within a day or two. Meanwhile, the police are tight-lipped about the details of the case.

A police officer, however, claimed that headway had been made in the case.

“Suspects are being picked up and investigated, but there is nothing concrete to share [with the media] at this stage,” he said while requesting not to be named since he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Many capital residents have raised questions about the police’s performance and security in housing societies. “They have covered entire whole Islamabad with surveillance cameras, but they still struggle to check such cases of kidnapping and other street crimes,” remarked Ahmed, a resident of Sector G-6.

*NAME WITHHELD TO PROTECT IDENTITY

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2017.