KARACHI, Dec 26: Police on Sunday morning recovered a seven-year-old boy and arrested his kidnappers from the Cantonment Railway Station. The ransom money paid to the kidnappers for the release of the boy, who was kidnapped in Punjab, was also recovered.

TPO Clifton, Imran Shaukat, who supervised the 18-hour stake out, told Dawn that the victim, Yahya Hasan, had been kidnapped in Wah Cantt on December 15 while he, along with his mother, was visiting his paternal uncle from Abu Dhabi.

The kidnappers had demanded an amount of Rs5 million as ransom in a call made to the boy’s father, Ghulam Hasan, living in Abu Dahbi. They had also asked for payment to be made in foreign currency. Ghulam Hasan runs an auto-workshop in Abu Dhabi.

According to the TPO, the amount had later been negotiated to Rs2 million.

In the meantime, the kidnappers moved to Lahore and finally to Karachi where payment was to be made. The process for payment started at 4pm on Saturday and ended at 2am when the amount was handed over to the kidnappers at the Cantonment Railway Station.

After half-an-hour, the kidnappers released the boy in the same area. As soon as he emerged, police moved swiftly and nabbed two suspects from the premises of the station. They were later identified as Naveed and Javed. The ransom amount was recovered from their possession on the spot.

During the interrogation, the suspects disclosed the identity of their ringleader who was also arrested from a bungalow in Khayaban-i-Ittehad.

The mastermind of the kidnap drama was identified as Rashid alias Gul Khan, who turned out to be a relative of Ghulam Hasan, the TPO said.