Sindh

Child kidnapped from Karachi, rescued in Sukkur

Buledi abducted his friend’s son because he was ‘humiliated’.

Express November 14, 2011

SUKKUR: The Sukkur police arrested two men and rescued a three-year-old boy, Abdul Hameed, who was abducted on the second day of Eidul Azha, from Karachi’s Hazara Colony in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

The police were tipped off that Hameed was being taken to Sukkur so his captors could collect the ransom money and hand him over to his mother on Sunday, revealed Sukkur SSP Saqib Memon at a press conference. A police party, led by DSP Mushtaq Shah reached Sukkur bypass and intercepted a car with the number plate, ALL-172, but the passengers opened fire. The police retaliated and after a brief encounter arrested the driver and the passenger, Shoukat Buledi and Rehmatullah Sanani, and took Abdul Hameed into custody.

The abductors initially demanded Rs2.5 million, but a sum of one million rupees was agreed upon, said Shah. Two TT pistols were also found from their car.

Buledi told The Express Tribune that he used to work as a waiter in a hotel at Jauhar Chowrangi and was friends with Abdul Hameed’s father, Mohammad Ali Dasti, who owns a grocery shop in the same area. “Two days before Eidul Azha, Dasti humiliated me on a small issue,” he said. “So I decided to equal the score. I took Abdul Hameed from his home and fled.”

The second suspect, Sanani, is a taxi driver. According to him, he was standing at the taxi stand when Buledi came to him with the child and asked him to go to Sukkur. “Shoukat was constantly talking to a woman on his mobile in the way,” he said. “He told her to wait on the city bypass. The police stopped us and arrested us after an exchange of fire.” Sanani insisted that he was innocent. Hameed’s mother said that Buledi used to cut her son’s feet to make him scream on the phone. She showed the marks on Hameed’s feet as proof. She confirmed that initially he asked for Rs2.5 million but said that the matter was settled at Rs0.5 million on the condition that she brought the money alone.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2011.