KARACHI, May 30: The body of a jeweller kidnapped in April was found in the underground water tank of a PECHS bungalow on Friday.

Police said information about the body was provided by the accused involved in the crime following their arrest.

Shaikh Mohammad Aslam, 48, owner of a jewellery shop on Tariq Road, was kidnapped on April 25 by unknown persons from Khadda Market. Later, the police found his car parked on Khayaban-i-Shamsheer. A case (FIR 223/2008) was registered against unknown suspects at the Darakhshan police station.

The chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), Sharfuddin Memon, said initial investigations suggested that Mr Aslam had been kidnapped by someone he knew. The kidnappers did not allow the victim to talk to his family members while they undertook ransom negotiations, adding to the anguish of the victim’s family members.

He added that fears expressed by investigators proved to be true when it turned out that the victim had been killed soon after his kidnapping.

Initially, the kidnappers demanded Rs3 million as ransom which was later reduced to Rs600,000 after negotiations. It was decided that delivery of the ransom amount would be made in Bhittai Colony.

Subsequently, a joint team of the CPLC and the Anti-Violent Crime Unit trapped the kidnappers and arrested Nawaz and Iftikhar in Bhittai Colony, while their accomplice, Rasheed Khan, reportedly a resident of Dera Ismail Khan, is still at large.

According to police, Nawaz is the caretaker of a vacant bungalow in PECHS and also used to operate a kiosk of soft drinks outside the shop of Shaikh Muhammad Aslam on Tariq Road. His accomplice, Iftikhar, is an electrician by profession.

Police said that the kidnappers had killed Aslam by strangulating him using a rope and later dumped his body in the underground water tank of the house.

Meanwhile, police on Friday arrested two members of a gang who got special children to beg after kidnapping them from different parts of the city.

Police acted on the information provided by a man whose nephew had been kidnapped from Lahore two years back. They said that the complainant, Mohammad Rafiq, spotted his nephew begging with a woman in Model Colony on Thursday night.

He informed the police who arrested the woman. She told investigators that two more such children were in the custody of the gang. Police raided the shanty town near Race Course ground and recovered the two special children who had been tied up with ropes.

Another woman, Bashiran, wife of the gang’s ringleader, was arrested from the spot. However, the ringleader of the gang is still absconding.