LAHORE, March 1: Criminal Investigation Agency (Organised Crime) police claimed on Thursday to have arrested six members of a gang from Kasur involved in abduction for ransom and recovered 12 abducted boys from their custody.

The police also recovered ransom money worth Rs400,000, two vehicles, as many motorcycles and illegal weapons from the possession of the accused who had allegedly abducted 12 teenagers from different parts of city during a month.

DIG (investigation) Azam Joyia told journalists about the arrests at a news conference here.

Explaining the outlaws’ modus operandi, Joyia said the accused used to abduct people on rented cars owned by Aamir Manoor of Kasur, detained them at a mud house in Chungi Amar Sadhu and then took them to Kasur.

Later they would make phone calls from the victims’ cell phones to their families demanding ransom money starting from Rs1 million, he added.

The DIG said after deciding the ransom amount, the accused would select the place randomly to collect the money, and would release the victims on receiving payment.

He said a special team led by CIA SP Masood Aziz arrested the ringleader, Noman alias Kashif, Ziad Shah alias Jogi, Adnan Nazir, Ashfaq, Arshad alais Nannah and Saleem alias Bagga, all residents of Kasur district.

The accused had kidnapped five boys from Nawankot, two each from Muslim Town and Wahdat Colony and from Iqbal Town, aging between 14 and 18, and received the amount up to Rs500,000 from each victim.

Joyia said to nab the outlaws, in some cases, plainclothesmen were sent along the victims’ families for payment of ransom to observe the kidnappers, which later helped police identify them.

The kidnapped boys were identified as Noman Malik, Zia Irshaad, Usman, Tauseef, Fasih Rana, Frzan Yaha, Kaleem, Asim and Jafar.

Joyia said total 35 cases of abduction were registered in 2006, out of which 23 were sent to courts, nine were cancelled, while in three cases the accused could not be arrested. The police recovered all the abducted boys.

He said 12 abduction cases were registered in the first two months of 2007, and all victims were recovered. Ten accused were also arrested, he added

To a question, he said the remaining members of the gang would be arrested soon.