KARACHI, May 15: Police on Sunday claimed to have arrested five suspects for their alleged involvement in several ‘short-term’ kidnapping for ransom cases.

SSP Farooq Awan told Dawn that the five suspects, who were studying MBA, BBA and ACCA courses in private universities, started their criminal activities that included kidnapping for ransom and car-lifting for meeting their ‘educational expenses’.

They were arrested in the People’s Colony and identified as Amir Hussain, Mohammad Irshad, Ansar Khalid, Muhammad Talha and Mohammad Salman. The suspects were residents of Defence, Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Gulistan-i-Jauhar, the police said.

During interrogation, the suspects disclosed that they had kidnapped six persons for ransom during 2008 to 2011.

The suspects said that they made their victim hostage in his car and started negotiating with his family to settle the ransom amount.

Later, they released their captive after getting the money. The ‘short-term’ kidnapping lasted for a few hours, the police added.

Recently, the suspects kidnapped an industrialist, Musharraf, in the Buffer Zone area, but they escaped from his car when they saw a police mobile van.