ISLAMABAD, Sept 6: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Wednesday unearthed a gang of kidnappers involved in kidnapping children from quake-affected areas, an official of the agency told Dawn.

He said the FIA arrested four accused from Babakpura, near Sheikhupura in a raid conducted on information of two girls who managed to escape from kidnappers’ detention cell on Aug 4.

The two girls Mehak Rani, 13, and Aksa Bibi, 8, are stated to be daughters of a retired Col Khalid Iqbal who and his wife died in Balakot when their house collapsed during the earthquake.

The two girls and their brother Ali Raza, 11, were attending their schools when the tremor hit different parts of the country including Balakot on Oct 8, 2005.

The ill-fated children were informed that their parents had lost their lives and they were shifted to a relief camp in Balakot, the official said.

Few days later, the three kids were kidnapped from the camp and were taken to a cell at Babakpura.

The girls informed the FIA that some 60 children had already been detained in the cell where they were too kept for several months.

On Aug 4, all three of them along with three other children managed to escaped from the detention cell but Ali Raza and other three kids were held again while Mahek Rani and Aksa Bibi fled away.

The freed girls reached G. T. Road in the night from where a man took them to a police station and later the FIA was informed about the incident.

The official said a joint raiding team of FIA and police was formed and the raid was conducted on the tip off by the girls.

The raiding party arrested four accused Arif Hussain, Nasir Shah, Nazar Hussain and Anwar Raza from the cell but it found no other child in the cell.

“It is believed that the abductors have shifted the kidnapped children to somewhere else before the raid,” the official said.

He said investigation was underway and more raids were being conducted to find other children and members of the gang.