SAHIWAL: With the help of National Highway and Motorway Police, the Farid Town police arrested a woman and recovered a nine-month-old boy seven hours after his kidnapping from here on Saturday.

The woman was part of a gang kidnapping children from Punjab and then selling them in big cities to different people.

Police said Muhammad Ijaz of Husanabad Colony took his son Ibrahim to the DHQ Teaching Hospital just before Iftar on Saturday after he fell sick. At the hospital, Ijaz handed over the suckling to his mother Robina (Ibrahim’s grandmother) who accompanied them to the DHQ, and went to the reception counter to get emergency ward slip.

In the meanwhile, a woman approached Robina and offered help to take the baby to the emergency ward. At the ward, Robina started searching for Ijaz. As the hospital staff got busy in Iftar, the woman identified as Maryam left the hospital along with the baby.

When Robina found her grandson and the woman missing, she raised an alarm. Local security guards started searching for the woman. Farid Town police arrived at the scene and had a quick look at the CCTV footage which showed the woman boarding a rickshaw from the DHQ parking stand.

Police recover suckling within hours after kidnapping

Rickshaw driver later informed police that he had dropped the woman at the general bus stand at around 7.30 pm. Police identified the bus company and through its administration located some five buses that had moved out the stand during that time.

SI Waqas Dhakko said Farid Town police alerted Motorway police’s Jamber beat staff and Patoki Sadar police. They jointly traced the bus and stopped it at a picket near Patoki bypass. Police arrested the woman and recovered the child.

Farid Town SHO Irfan Rasool told Dawn the woman operating from Lahore was part of an inter-district gang which kidnapped minor children from small towns and then sold them in big cities. He said Maryam was taking the child to Lahore to sell it to the gang.

Irfan said police would lay hands on other members of the gang after investigating the woman.

The child was meanwhile handed over to his father Ijaz on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2021