MIANWALI, Jan 27: After a week-long hectic struggle, the police have succeeded in recovering an eight-year-old son of a well-off trader without paying a ransom amount to kidnappers.

Reports said that three criminals had kidnapped Bilal, the only son of Musakhel iron merchant Haji Muhammad Yousaf, for ransom on Jan 19 when he was returning to his house from the school. Later, the kidnappers demanded Rs1.5 million ransom for the release of the boy.

In a bid to recover Bilal, his uncle Muhammad Khan alias Hara Bhara lost his life when he went to an outhouse of some suspects where he was shot dead.

DPO Akhtar Umer Hayat Lalika on Saturday produced the recovered boy along with his father and uncles before journalists. The guardians affirmed that Bilal was recovered without paying any ransom amount to kidnappers.

The DPO said that the three outlaws, who were also proclaimed offenders, had kidnapped the boy in connivance with a cousin of Haji Yousaf.

Mr Lalika said that over 40 incidents of kidnapping for ransom had occurred during the last three years in the district but not a single case was reported to the police. He said kidnapping of Bilal was the first case that was reported to the police which was solved without paying the ransom amount to kidnappers.

The DPO expressed his regret for not revealing the identity of kidnappers, as according to him, the police wanted to arrest the whole gang.

Sources said that the police had picked up the mother of a kidnapper and tightened the screws on outlaws to exchange the kidnapped boy with that of the woman. The kidnappers finally succumbed to the police pressure and returned the boy to law enforcers late on Friday night.

It may be mentioned that the same gang had kidnapped the two businessmen of Rawalpindi last year. The very next day, the outlaws released the traders after receiving from them Rs900,000 ransom amount. However, the police had not registered a case against the kidnappers.