LAHORE: The Iqbal Town police on Tuesday recovered a five-year-old boy some 48 hours after he was allegedly kidnapped by a woman from Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park, where he had gone with his parents for recreation.

The police also arrested the alleged kidnapper, Naheed Islam, 55, from her Hunza Block residence in Iqbal Town and lodged a case against her.

Saad was handed over to his father Fahad at the police station where his mother and other relatives were also present.

The suspect told the police that she was without an issue and took the boy Saad to her house in the evening on Jan 13 when she found him roaming in the park alone and crying.

Iqbal Town Division SP (Operations) Ali Raza told Dawn the boy was recovered with the help of the CCTV cameras footage which led the police to the suspected kidnapper.

Appreciating the role of Safe City Project in crime prevention and detection, the SP said the women was traced along with the boy through the CCTV cameras installed at various roads and points in the locality.

He said the suspect went out of the CCTV cameras’ reach when she entered a street, leaving police without any clue to her exact address.

He said the police teams picketed the locality for two days to trace the woman.

However, the SP added, when the police launched a house-to-house search in the targeted area with the help of lady police personnel, the suspected woman and her deaf-and-mute husband got panicked.

As soon as the couple came out of the house with the boy, probably to go somewhere, the police teams arrested them, he said.

During interrogation, he said, the woman told the police that she got married some 22 years back but had no child due to some medical issues.

The SP said the couple had no previous crime record. However, he said, he woman failed to explain as to why she took the boy home, he added.

Mr Raza said Fahad and his wife had visited the park on Jan 13 along with their three children, including Saad.

As they were busy entertaining the children, they suddenly found Saad missing at around 4:30pm, probably because of the rush of the visitors, he said.

The parents kept looking for the boy in the park and after failing to find him, they reported the matter to the police, the SP added.

After Saad was traced, several relatives and locals gathered at Fahad’s house to celebrate the child’s recovery.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2019