SHIKARPUR: The New Faujdari police on Tuesday foiled an attempt to kidnap three women and a five-year-old child while they were being shifted to the kutcha area of Khanpur district.

The police said that a car was intercepted on Shikarpur bypass while it was moving towards the kutcha area. The policemen posted at the place found two suspicious armed men sitting in the car along with the three women and a child. They asked the car occupants about their identity and destination but the armed men opened fire and tried to speed away. The police chased the car and returned fire, finally forcing the suspects to surrender before them, officials at the New Faujdari police station said. “All hostages were safely recovered,” they said, adding that the car was impounded and five kilos of hashish found inside was seized.

The suspects, Ghulam Nabi Jafferi and Abdul Rehman, were arrested and two TT pistols were seized from them, they said.

The freed hostages, Sughra, Zuhra and Nadia, were quoted as telling the police that they were residents of Khairpur and had befriended a “woman”, who had been making calls to them for some time.

“The caller wished to see us at a mutually agreed place in Shikarpur and we reached there,” they said. They said the car was present at the place and the suspect forced them into it at gunpoint.

The police said that the suspects were members of a dacoit gang.

“They excel in talking to people over phone in woman voice and luring them into their trap,” the police said, adding that they had received a tip-off about the kidnapper’s plan.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2016