KARACHI, Oct 15: An 18-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for kidnapping his childhood friend for ransom and later killing him.

Officials of the police and Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) said that the suspect had strangled the 16-year-old victim, a first year student at Swedish Technical College, and dumped the body at his house in Sherpao Colony, Landhi.

Najeeb Danawala, member of the CPLC’s anti-kidnapping task force, told Dawn that the suspect, Fahim, son of Saleem, was a childhood friend of the victim, Syed Saad Ali, son of Syed Badar Jamil Zaidi, a resident of Labour Colony, Landhi.

He said that the suspect had masterminded the kidnapping for ransom after he learnt from the victim that his father had gone to Multan to receive a payment of Rs3 million. “He asked the victim to visit him on Monday before going to college and strangled him within 15 minutes of his arrival at his house,” he added.

Mr Danawala said that the suspect strangled the victim with his own tie. “There is a wound visible to his skull and we are waiting for the postmortem report to finally ascertain the real cause of the victim’s death,” he added.

The CPLC official said that the kidnapper called the victim’s house on a landline phone at around 2pm and asked Rs3 million as ransom for the release of the boy, although he had already killed him.

“He asked the victim’s family to get the ransom money ready and told them that he would call them again at midnight,” he added.

Mr Danawala said that the family reported the matter to the police and a joint team, comprising officials of local police and CPLC, was formed to investigate the case.

He said that the victim’s family told the kidnapper that they did not have that much money to pay for the release of the victim. “They told the kidnapper that they could arrange Rs20,000 only and the kidnapper agreed to accept the amount, asking them to bring the cash to a playground in Landhi,” he added.

The CPLC official said that the joint team kept the area under constant surveillance and spotted the suspect roaming around the designated place on Tuesday. “We picked him up and he broke down during the preliminary – but tactful – interrogation,” he added.

Najeeb Danawala said that the joint team raided the house of the suspect and found on Wednesday the body dumped in the store room.

The Quaidabad police registered a case (FIR 331/2008) against the suspect for the kidnapping and subsequent murder of the victim.

The police said that the suspect’s parents lived in Rawalpindi and he lived here with one of his cousins.

They said that the suspect had identified his cousin as Qazzafi, who was still untraceable.

The police said that they were making hectic efforts to track down Qazzafi as his abetment and involvement in the offence was not being overruled by the investigators.

Meanwhile, sources in the victim’s family told Dawn that Saad was third among six siblings.

They said that the victim’s father had retired from the Pakistan Steel Mills after availing himself of the golden handshake scheme.

The sources said that the grieving father was currently working as a parking-lot contractor at a commercial centre in Saddar.