HYDERABAD, Aug 25: A joint team of the Matiari, Hyderabad and Nawabshah police recovered a hostage and arrested a kidnapper following a brief encounter in a banana orchard within the jurisdiction of the Matiari police station late Sunday night.

The hostage, Mir Murtaza Zardari, was a student of the Public School Hyderabad.

The kidnapper was identified as Arz Mohammad Mangwano. A TT pistol and three live bullets were recovered from his possession.

The Matiari police confirmed that three of his accomplices, who were involved in the kidnapping, had escaped. They were identified as Edan Zardari, Ghulam Shabbir Paryo and Ghulam Mangwano.

A separate case of police encounter has been lodged at the Matiari police station on the complaint of SHO Matiari.

Police said that the encounter took place near the Jam distry after police spotted the suspect near the Dodo Mangwano village.

The boy was kidnapped from Nawabshah on Aug 22 after his classmates, Abid Hussain and Sajid Hussain (both brothers), who were also residents of Nawabshah, gave him some liquid to drink that rendered him unconscious.

#Our Nawabshah correspondent adds:#

Police arrested Abid Hussain and Sajid Hussain during a raid in Gharibabad.

Gharib Nawaz Zardari, father of the hostage, lodged an FIR under section 365-A PPC.

Mir Murtaza Zardari told journalists that Abid and Sajid had called him to the Khoja Garden on Friday where they gave him something to drink and he soon fell unconscious.

He said that when he regained consciousness, he found himself in a banana orchard.

The ASP, Saddar, Zubair Dareshak, told this correspondent that the kidnappers rang Murtaza’s home on Saturday and demanded Rs1.2 million as ransom for his release, and added that their phone number was traced.