LAHORE: Police claimed on Saturday to have arrested four members of a gang which had kidnapped for ransom a six-year-old boy four days ago in Iqbal Town.

Iqbal Town Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Shaista Nadeem told a press conference that Muhammad Ali Zakir was coming back home after school when five men on a car and a motorcycle held him up and bundled him in the car after wrapping a shawl around him. They took away the boy within no time, she said.

Capital City Police Officer Amin Wains took notice of the incident and directed the SP to recover the boy and arrest the kidnappers. The SP, she said, constituted a team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Ashfaq Khan and directed them to recover the boy soon.

She said the team set about tracing the child and got the CCTV footage showing two motorcyclists and three car riders kidnapping the child. After some time, she said, the child’s family received a phone call informing them that “their child has lost his way and is standing in a park in Iqbal Town”.

According to the SP, the police team had already traced the car after watching the CCTV footage and later recovered the boy from the park and handed him over to his family. She said they also traced the mobile number and found out that the kidnappers had snatched the phone from a rickshaw driver and informed the child’s family after releasing him.

Police, said Ms Nadeem, arrested suspect Ammar Yasir, a relative of the boy, who disclosed that he and his four accomplices including a woman had planned to kidnap the boy for ransom but set him free for fear of arrest.

She said officials conducted raids in various parts of the city and also arrested Jaffar Ali, Muhammad Shahid and Ayesha, wife of Shahid. They also recovered the vehicles and illegal weapon from the suspects, she said, adding that one accomplice Imran was at large.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera announced cash prizes and commendatory certificates for the police team for recovering the boy and arresting the kidnappers.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2016

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