LAHORE: The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) of Lahore police on Monday recovered a minor boy some 18 days after he was allegedly kidnapped for Rs100 million ransom by unknown motorcyclists from a park in the jurisdiction of Sundar police station.

He was recovered from a house in Lahore by a team, led by CIA SSP Asim Iftihar. Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz and Inspector General of Police Rao Sardar Ali Khan were getting updates daily on the case when a video clip of the incident surfaced showing the kidnappers abducting the boy who was crying for help.

From Lahore, CCPO Bilal Siddique Kamyana and DIG investigation Kamran Adil were supervising eight police teams working on the case when the callers hurled threats that they would kill the boy if complaint was reported to the police.

Five-year-old Areez was playing in the park of a private housing society when two persons came on a motorbike, kidnapped him and escaped.

He was kidnapped for Rs100m ransom

The clip went viral on social media and the kidnap incident further mounted pressure on the police authorities when the father of the boy received a ransom call of Rs100m for the safe release of his minor son.

Lahore Investigation DIG Kamran Adil shared some details with the media saying that it was a challenging situation for the police when it appeared that the calls for ransom were made from Dubai.

He said the police teams raided seven places in Lahore, Gujranwala and Sira-i-Alamgir during the last 18 days and finally resolved the case.

The DIG said the police also seized a network of private gateway that was used to make ransom calls and arrested two suspects.

He said a CIA team raided a premises in Lahore while the two suspects later identified as Sajjad and Akram, who had kidnapped the boy, were arrested from Sara-i-Alamgir.

The raid was carried out on the basis of the technical information the police obtained to trace the hideouts of the boy and the kidnappers.

The police also recovered two modern rifles from the arrested suspects, the DIG said adding that the teams were also conducting raids to arrest the other absconding suspects including a woman Mehwish, Shahbaz and Owais.

He said Mehwish was a step-grandmother of Areez who had hatched the plan of kidnapping the boy with connivance of Sajjad, Akram and Owais.

She said the suspects hired by her were promised to pay a hefty amount after collecting it from the boy’s father.

He said the remaining suspects would also be arrested soon.

Talking to newsmen, the boy’s father thanked the chief minister, IG and CCPO Lahore and their team.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2022