16 December 2004	Thursday	03 Ziqa'ad 1425

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LAHORE, Dec 15: Police claimed the credit on Wednesday to have arrested criminals who had kidnapped a girl for ransom. The police had earlier said the captors had a money dispute with the family of the kidnapped girl.

On Dec 7, the city police said the captors had left the girl at her house hours after receiving Rs1.4 million. However, sources said the family had the girl released after the payment of ransom.

Five-year-old Kashaf was kidnapped when her father, Adnan, a bank officer, was taking her to school in Garden Town. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Lahore Operations police chief Aftab Cheema identified the accused as Imran Ranjha and Junaid Iqbal.

However, he claimed lavish spendings by the accused made them suspicious in the eyes of a woman belonging to the girl's family. The accused had gathered all details through her before committing the crime.

The other clue, which led to the accused, was one of their acquaintances Amirullah to whom they had made a bank transaction of Rs1 million. "Mr Amirullah helped police trace the accused," Mr Cheema said.

Belonging to a well-off family, Imran Ranjha, the main accused, a Lawrance College graduate, together with the co-accused took the girl to his native town, Sargodha.

The accused used various cell phones to be in touch with the family and had been demanding Rs5 million as ransom. Agreeing on Rs1.4 million, the accused returned to Lahore the same night and called the bank manager at Akbar Chowk in the Township. From there they kept on changing their location.

They collected the money from Jauhar Town after ensuring the police were not escorting the family of the girl. Mr Cheema claimed a police party chased the accused after the family of the girl told them that she was with the accused when they paid them money. The accused dropped the girl outside a food chain near Barkat Market and rushed to Islamabad, the police chief added.