Rickshaw driver foils abduction bid

Picking up on five minors’ unease around suspicious chaperon, the rickshaw driver alerts parents, cops

KARACHI:

 A rickshaw driver caught on to the discomfort of five minors ushered onto his vehicle by a shady man and managed to alert their father foiling an abduction attempt.

It was around 3.30 on Saturday afternoon when a man standing near a PMT pole in Naval Colony signalled for Saeedullah Ameerzada's rickshaw to stop.

The man jostled five minors, including two girls and three boys, onto the rickshaw. As Saeedullah drove towards Khyber Chowk, where the suspect, Muhammad Faheem, said he wanted to go, the rickshaw driver noticed that the children were acting strange and scared, even as Faheem spoke about some bicycle.

Saeedullah managed to get the father's number from one of the children and sneakily alerted the parents and Madadgar 15. A team from Saeedabad Police Station intercepted the party and caught the alleged kidnapper, identified as Muhammad Faheem son of Ghulam Murtaza, and rescued the children.

 According to police, the three-year-old Muhammad Bilal, three-and-a-half-yearold Muhammad Ahsan, sixyear-old Muhammad, Arifa Rashid, 10, and Noreen, 10, all belong to the same family.

They were headed home from their madressah in Naval Colony, Saeedabad, when Faheem approached them, cops said.

Faheem, a labourer at the Naval Colony, promised to buy the children a bicycle as he lured them away from their route home, said police, adding that the suspect confessed to the crime during initial investigation.

The rescued children were handed over to the grateful family. Acting on the complaint, a team led by Saeedabad SHO Shakir Hussain reached the rickshaw in time, said Keamari SSP.

A case was lodged against Faheem under Sections 363 read with 364-A [pertaining to abduction] of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Saeedabad Police Station. Further investigation was underway.