Khayali police arrested on Sunday a man and a woman who, they said, have confessed to kidnapping a child for ransom.
The child, Subhan Waris, 10, was earlier released on payment of a Rs300,000 ransom provided by the police on Saturday.
Deputy Superintendent of Police of the Crime Investigation Agnecy Tahir Gujjar told The Express Tribune that the ransom amount was arranged on directives of the city police officer. He said the police paid the ransom instead of using force to recover the child to ensure the latter’s safety. “The child’s father is poor and could not have raised the money. We did it on our own fearing that use of force may lead the kidnappers to kill the child.
“We did not want to take any chances this time because another child recently kidnapped in the city had been killed,” he said.
The suspects were identified as Javed Ahmed and Shahida Bibi.
DSP Gujjar said the police had already tracked down the suspects but waited for the safe return of the child to arrest them.
He said they had located the suspects through the cell phone they used to contact the child’s family. The number was registered in the name of Naseem Bibi, a neighbour of the child’s family.
Naseem Bibi led the police to the suspects when she told them she had given a photocopy of her computerised identity card to Shahida Bibi to open an account for the Benazir Income Support Programme.
The latter had used the photocopy to register a subscriber identity module (SIM) card she used to negotiate with the child’s family in Naseem Bibi’s name.
On Saturday, Muhammad Waris went to Lahore where he found his son abandoned near a private clinic in Shahdara. He had earlier paid the money to the kidnapper, Javed Ahmed, near Yadgar Chowk.
DSP Gujjar said the suspects had confessed to the kidnapping. He said they had also admitted to earlier kidnappings for ransom in Multan and Faisalabad. He said the police were now looking for their two sons, who are also suspected of being involved in the crime.
Kidnapped and killed
Shahryar Ahmed, 10, was kidnapped and killed allegedly by one Imtiaz Ahmed, who is now under arrest.
The child’s body was recovered on Tuesday after the suspect’s arrest. The suspect had earlier received a Rs1 million ransom from the family.
Shahryar Ahmed was kidnapped from his house in Cheema Colony, Wazirabad, in August a day before the Eid. Imtiaz Ahmed told the police that he had planned the kidnapping during his job as a daily-wager at an under-consruction house in the neighbourhood where the child’s family resided in Cheema Colony.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2012.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ