SWABI, April 28: The family of a boy who has been missing for two and a half months received a phone call that he is safe and in the captivity of some people.

Family members said on Monday they were a little relieved now that the boy was safe but they had not been conveyed any demand for ransom or told about his location by the caller. They said they had no enmity with anyone in the area.

A Hafiz-i-Quran, the 17-year-old boy, Naseemullah, belongs to a religious family of the Kaddi village, 10 kilometres from the district headquarters. He had gone to morning prayers on Feb 9, but did not return.

Sources said the boy’s family had earlier received a few missed calls from different numbers, but it was the first time the caller told them about him.

The boy is a student of class IX in the Government High School, Kaddi. His disappearance has put his education at stake because he missed the class IX examinations being conducted by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Mardan.

An FIR had been registered against unknown kidnappers with the Zaida police. Some suspects had been arrested in the case but police had failed to find any clue to his whereabouts, said the sources.