01 January 2005	Saturday	19 Ziqa'ad 1425

FAISALABAD, Dec 31: The district police claimed to have held six people, who had kidnapped a trader's son for Rs3 million ransom the other day.

DIG Sajjad Ahmad told a press conference here on Friday that six armed men stopped cloth merchant Muhammad Sadiq's car at People's Colony and took it away along with its driver and trader's son Usman Sadiq on Thursday morning.

They took the boy to an unknown place after throwing the driver and leaving the vehicle at a deserted place, he said, adding that the kidnappers demanded Rs3 million ransom from Usman's parents and warned them against approaching police.

However, the DIG added, the victim's family approached the police and DPO Muhammad Amin Wains personally supervised the matter and constituted a team to trace the kidnappers.

In the late hours of Thursday, he said, the kidnappers asked the parents of the boy to drop a box containing cash near an open place on the Canal Road in People's Colony police station precinct.

Scores of policemen, including female staff in plainclothes, were deputed around the fixed place where the boy's father dropped the cash which after some time was collected by two masked motorcyclists.

The range police chief claimed that the police team chased the motorcyclists and stopped them after one and-a-half hour on the Chak Jhumra Road. The two persons, identified as Waqas Ahmad and Saqib, led the police to other kidnappers and the boy at a poultry farm in Thikriwala police station area. Waqar Ali, Rangeela, Ghazanfar and Vicky were arrested from that place.

The DIG said Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and the IGP had appreciated the efficiency of the local police and announced Rs50,000 each for Batala Colony SHO Alamdar Shah and D-Type Colony SHO Waseem Faraz, besides special award for People's Colony ASP Dr Rizwan.

RESEARCH WING: The Farmers Association Faisalabad (FAF) has expressed its concern over the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee's decision to wind up its research wing from the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute.

FAF chief Mian Tahir Saeed said in a statement here on Friday that the AARI was the main cotton research institute in the province where the committee authorities had been running research projects for the last five decades.

He said the institute had the honour of introducing several cotton varieties, which had helped enhance its production. Besides, he said, the collection of cotton cess was a major source of income for the PCCC from Faisalabad.

Mr Saeed regretted that the committee's officials without appreciating the utility of the staff engaged in the cotton research institute, had unilaterally decided to wind up its project from the district and it would be detrimental to the cotton production and affect collection of cess.

The FAF chief demanded that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Federal Food and Agriculture Minister Sikandar Bosan reverse the decision of the PCCC. The committee's general body at its 73rd meeting had decided to wind up its research projects from Faisalabad and the entire staff, including scientists, had been directed to report to the Cotton Research Institute in Multan.