KARACHI: A day after a child was released by his captors, police on Saturday claimed to have killed two suspected kidnappers in an alleged encounter in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

Police claimed that they were the same people who had kidnapped the child since some belongings of his mother were recovered from them.

Five-year-old Muhammad Abban was kidnapped at gunpoint from Defence Phase-VIII in front of his mother, who had picked him up from school in her car. The kidnappers used a rented vehicle, kept the child for 12 hours and released him near Jauhar Chowrangi after taking a Rs300,000 ransom.

Police say they were involved in abducting a five-year-old in DHA

The Sahil police station registered a case under Section 365-A (kidnapping for ransom) and Section 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code and the investigation was transferred to the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) of the police.

Crime Investigation Agency DIG Saqib Ismail Memon said that a joint raid was carried out near Kamran Chowrangi in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, but the suspects in a bid to escape opened fire. An encounter ensued and as a result both suspects got killed on the spot, he added.

He said that they were identified as Zaheer Mirza and Zaki.

An amount of Rs100,000 — a portion of the ransom amount collected earlier — a purse and a cellphone of the kidnapped child’s mother were recovered from them, he said.

The DIG told Dawn that suspect Mirza had a master’s degree in computer science and he gave tuition to children in Defence.

He said he had carried out proper reconnaissance before kidnapping the child.

Citizens-Police Liaison Committee chief Zubair Habib told Dawn that it was a two-member gang.

He said the suspects lived in a flat near Kamran Chowrangi and they had told their neighbours that they were associated with a federal law enforcement agency.

Regarding release of the boy after payment of ransom, the CPLC chief said that time was always of the essence in case of children’s kidnapping. So the focus remained on their early recovery in order to save them from trauma and psychological effects, he added.

He explained that in case of kidnapping of adults the law enforcers and the CPLC usually engaged the kidnappers in negotiation, which would continue for two or three weeks till the safe recovery of the kidnapped persons.

Mr Habib claimed that their “strategy” became successful as the child was recovered within a short span of 12 hours, and the gang was eliminated within 24 hours through coordinated efforts of the police and the CPLC.

Meanwhile, Sindh police chief A.D. Khowaja and Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal announced a cash reward for the police team led by AVCC SSP Abdullah Ahmad.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2017