MANSEHRA, Feb 6: Police recovered a kidnapped girl after an encounter with proclaimed offenders in Kala Dhaka area of the district and arrested the main accused in the case on Wednesday morning.

The girl, Nabeela, had been kidnapped when some gunmen barged into her house and killed her two brothers and injured her mother and another brother in Behali area of Mansehra last week, official said.

Flanked by the recovered girl and her father Mohammad Akbar, district police officer Dr Mazaharul Haq Khakakhail told journalists during a press conference in his office that Nabeela was recovered following an encounter with the proclaimed offenders in which SHO Khursheed Khan was injured. He said that the kidnapper of the girl, Mirza Abbasi, lost his legs when fell into a deep ditch in a bid to sneak through the police siege.

The DPO said earlier the police raids in Haripur and Mansehra were fruitless as the gang which was involved in the crime used to change their hideouts frequently.

Responding queries of journalists, Mr Akber said that Mirza Abbasi had sent a proposal for her daughter some three years ago.

My family was about to accept the proposal but we came to know that he was a gangster and smuggler so we refused it which infuriated him, he added.