Killed for ransom: Body dug up from an empty plot

KARACHI: The police found the body of a teenage boy on information provided by two alleged kidnappers in police custody. The victim was identified as 14-year-old Huzaifa Amir who had been kidnapped around 1.5 months ago from outside his house in Block-N in North Nazimabad. His body was found in Ahsanabad on Saturday. The police said that the kidnappers, Adeel and Murad, told them that they had killed Huzaifa the day after he was kidnapped, even though they had received Rs600,000 in ransom from his parents. Adeel and Murad were also arrested from Ahsanabad after the Anti Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) and Citizens-Police-Liaison Committee traced a series of calls demanding ransom. The men were spotted near Ahsanabad on the Super Highway and arrested. The AVCC chief, SP Ghulam Subhani, said that the kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs5 million. The family gave them Rs600,000 but they called and demanded more. Adeel worked for Huzaifa’s mother at her boutique and was laid off a few months ago. Huzaifa was strangled to death, added Subhani, and was found buried in an empty plot.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2012.