LAHORE, Dec 15: Police on Thursday thwarted a kidnap-for-ransom bid by recovering a schoolboy, within one-and-a-half hour of his abduction, besides rounding up one of his alleged captors from Multan Road. Operations police chief Amir Zulfikar Khan said a timely police reaction helped foil the heinous crime attempt. “Every such emergency call should be promptly responded,” he directed all staff of the operations police.

The police said a trader, Iftikhar Khan, left his Huma Block house in Allama Iqbal Town to drive his seven-year-old son Sheharyar Khan to a nearby school.

The trader’s car was intercepted by another car near the school and three armed men, coming out of the car, ordered him to hand over his son to them, police said.

On meeting resistance, the outlaws opened fire causing a bullet injury to the trader’s leg. They bundled the schoolboy in their car and sped away.

The injured trader made an emergency call to the police through his cell phone. A message was aired to police in the area, sending various patrols to chase the car.

Police said one of the patrol spotted the car on Multan Road. Its staff ordered the criminals to halt, but they did not. The accused got panicked and hit their car in a tractor trolley, said the police.

One of the accused was caught, while his two accomplices managed their escape. The police took the schoolboy in custody. The arrested man identified himself as Nazir Bloch, and his accomplices as Aziz and Safdar.

The injured trader told the police that the three accused had met him at his relative’s wedding some days ago. He added he had discussed prospects of some new business venture with some of his relatives as he had recently sold out his property worth over Rs10 million. He claimed he had been receiving anonymous calls for some days, where the caller demanded Rs5 million fro him.

The arrested accused told police that he and his accomplices had made the kidnapping plan shortly after they left the marriage party.