Safe and sound: Police recover abducted boy, arrest kidnappers

FAISALABAD:

Police on Saturday recovered a boy abducted for ransom and arrested three kidnappers, including a ten-year-old boy.

Five-year-old Abdul Hanan had gone missing from his home in Ismail Town on June 22. His parents had received a call from the kidnappers later the same evening who demanded Rs700,000 as ransom for his release. Hanan’s parents contacted Jhang Bazaar police and informed them about the kidnapping. On police’s instructions, Hanan’s parents agreed to pay the ransom. The kidnappers were arrested when they came to take the money. CPO Dr Haider Ashraf said he had constituted a team to apprehend the kidnappers, headed by Jhang Bazaar SHO Khalil Ahmad and Gulberg SHO Siddique Cheema.

“The kidnappers repeatedly changed the site for receiving the ransom. We deployed policemen in plainclothes each time they said they would come to a certain area,” Ashraf said. The CPO said the kidnappers were identified as Asim Shehzad, resident of Hameed Park, D-Type Colony; Zeeshan, a resident of Khokhar Town; and 10-year-old Muhammad Usman, a resident of Ismail Town. The CPO told journalists that Usman had helped Asim and Zeeshan kidnap Hanan. “Usman was a neighbor of the victim.

During the initial interrogation, he told us that he had taken Hanan out of his home on the pretext of giving him candies,” the official said. On the way, Asim and Zeeshan, who were riding a bike, kidnapped Hanan, the CPO said. “They took Hanan to Asim’s home, where they locked him up in a room,” Ashraf said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2014.