SAHIWAL: An anti-terrorism court special judge issued a notice for registration of a case against an investigation officer of Ghala Mandi police station under Section 27- A of the Anti-Terrorism Act for poorly handling a child kidnap case.

The judge observed that the investigation officer conducted a poor investigation that helped the kidnappers collect ransom money in exchange for the release of the child. The judge also called District Police Officer Muhammad Ali Zia, Sadar Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rana Fawad, City DSP Anam Faryal and Ghala Mandi Station House Officer Rana Nadeem Iqbal on May 21 with written explanations.

Mian Ahsan Ali, a 13-year-old old Class VI student, was kidnapped on the morning of Jan 17 just a few yards from his house on Arifwala Road. Around four unidentified armed kidnappers had intercepted the car Ali was travelling in, beat the driver and kidnapped the boy.

Ali is the younger brother of a local journalist and of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Mian Umar, hence a lot of hype was created over the kidnapping on local as well as social media. A first information report (FIR) was registered at Ghala Mandi Police Station the same day.

On Jan 21, family sources confirmed that the unidentified kidnappers had dropped the boy near a multinational fast food restaurant at Sahiwal bypass from where the family picked him up. At that time the family sources had told the media that Ali had been recovered after paying ransom.

The Sahiwal district police chief’s spokesman had then claimed that police knew about the family’s communication with kidnappers.

On Saturday, a 48-second video of Ali went viral on social media in which he is seen demanding Prime Minister Imran Khan and the chief justice of Pakistan ensure immediate arrest of his kidnappers. Ali says in the clip: “I was kept chained in a dark room for four days, but police failed to arrest my kidnappers.”

He can be seen questioning if he should leave Pakistan to stay safe or wait for being kidnapped again by the same or other kidnappers.

He further says he was scared of going to school. He alleged that his family paid huge ransom to secure his recovery, but police failed to track down the kidnappers even after four months.

DSP Rana Fawad told Dawn that at that time a few suspects had been arrested, adding that they still have not received notices from the ATC.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2019