Child kidnapped four years ago recovered

‘I kidnapped him because I was childless’.

FAISALABAD:

The police on Monday recovered a child kidnapped from Nurpur four years ago and arrested the kidnappers, a police spokesman said.

Ashiq Ali had rented a portion of his house in Haji Abad to Sardar Ahmad and his wife Shafqat Riaz four years ago. The couple kidnapped Ali’s year-and-a-half old son on July 28, 2008, and disappeared.

Sargodha Road police had registered a case against the couple and six others. They managed to arrest Ahmad and three other people involved in the kidnapping on July 30, 2008, but could not find the child.

Ali had appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry who instructed the police to recover the missing child.

City Police Officer Bilal Siddique Kamyana, Medina Town Superintendent Tahir Maqsood Chheena, Inspector Yasir Jutt and Assistant Sub Inspector Riaz Gujjar led the search and managed to arrest Shafqat. They finally found the missing child in an area near Thokar Niaz Baig in Lahore.

Shafqat said she had kidnapped the child because she was childless. She said she had spared no efforts in upbringing the child. She said she had enrolled him in a school where he was a prep class student. “I went back to return him to his parents after a child was born to me but could not find the house,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2013.