TOBA TEK SINGH, Jan 6: City police on Sunday morning recovered a minor girl from Kamalia who was kidnapped for ransom on Saturday from Garden Town.

Reports said five-year-old Alisha, a class-I student, was playing outside her house when someone kidnapped her and demanded Rs800,000 from her father Shaukat Ali for her release.

Shaukat along with a police team went to Kamalia and put a bag containing the ransom amount at 2am in a ground in Zeeshan colony on Kamalia-Toba Road. As the accused came there, the police opened fire on them. The kidnappers managed their escape empty-handed.

Later, the police team and Shaukat found the girl standing near the keeper of railway crossing on Kamalia-Toba Road.

The gatekeeper told the police that a man had left the girl, saying that he was going to get a rickshaw.

The police could not find a clue to the accused till the filing of the report.

Powerloomers’ demo: Kamalia cotton and silk powerloom workers and owners associations held a joint protest demonstration outside Kamalia press club on Sunday against prolonged electricity loadshedding.

Speaking to the participants, office-bearers said the continuous outages had severely affected the powerloom business as a result workers were facing joblessness.

They said Kamalia was known internationally for producing best quality `khaddar’ (cotton coarse cloth), but the 20-hour electricity suspension had rendered them unable to run the business and both workers and owners were facing a financial crisis.

Even the workers were unable to purchase flour and other essential commodities for their families.

They have threatened to take to the streets if prolonged outages continue.