January 22, 2003	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 18, 1423

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PESHAWAR, Jan 21: The city police on Tuesday recovered the car of a retired army general snatched on Monday and busted an inter-provincial gang of car-lifters.

IGP Mohammad Saeed Khan told a press conference that five armed men had snatched the car from Maj-Gen Mehboobuz Zafar (retired) near Chakwal in Punjab. They offloaded him near Fateh Jang and escaped with the car.

He said that after receiving an information, a police party raided a hotel near Shoba Bazaar and nabbed five persons. The police also arrested three more members of the car-lifter gang. The IG said that the gang confessed snatching over 14 cars.

Those who were arrested, included Mohammad Asad, Abid, Kamran and Iqbal. However, the IG refused to give the names of four others.

Sources in the police department, however, told Dawn that Faisal Mukhtar and Khalid Mukhtar, sons of a retired DSP, were the two other alleged members of the gang. The sources said that the two brothers had purchased the car of the retired general for Rs100,000 and were planning to dismantle it.

The IG claimed that the city police also foiled an attempt to kidnap Zeeshan Masood, 8, from Prang, Charsadda. He said that on Tuesday morning Zeshan Masood was going to school along with his sisters in a bus. Some armed men stopped the bus and picked Zeshan Masood.

His father informed the police, which cordoned off the entire district’s exit routes. The four kidnappers sensing their arrest escaped leaving the car, a Kalashnikov and Zeshan Masood in Zaryab Colony, Faqirabad.