RAHIM YAR KHAN, Sept 6: In a `major’ operation police recovered a five-year-old girl and arrested two alleged kidnappers on Wednesday.

The girl, Minahal Ilyas, was lifted from Gulshan-i-Iqbal five days ago. The kidnappers, now identified as Tahir and Shahzad, had demanded Rs10 million from Ilyar Jatt, the father of the girl.

For three days the family negotiated the ransom amount with the kidnappers and contacted the police just two days ago for the fear of the outlaws who had threatened to kill the girl in case police stepped in.

DPO Sultan Chaudhry involved policemen from Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad who worked out a strategy and negotiated with the outlaws as relatives of the girl and struck a deal for Rs 200,000.

The ransom was paid to the kidnappers by some policemen in civvies which resulted in the safe recovery of the girl from Habib Colony. At the same time police launched an operation by sealing the area and arrested Tahir and Shahzad who belonged to Khanpur. — Correspondent