HYDERABAD, Nov 2: Jam Nawab Hussain Samoon, father of senior journalist Lala Rehman, returned home early on Sunday morning amid police claim that the arrest of two members of the kidnappers’ gang and determined move to nab the remaining gang members forced the captors to set him free.

Lala Rehman told Dawn that his father reached home at 7.30 am. Four unidentified men left him at a bus stand somewhere on a highway, which he did not know whether it was National or Indus before dawn and left, he said, adding that his elderly father’s eyesight was so weak that he could not identify the place.

He said that he surmised from the fact that his father paid Rs120 as bus fare for Hyderabad that his captors might have left him somewhere near Nawabshah.

Jam Samoon, who was kidnapped on Sept 21 in the area of Makki Shah police station when he left home to offer morning prayers, said that he had been kept at four different places and his captors used to keep him in orchards or in cotton fields during the night and move to some home in the morning.

He believed that his captors first kept him in Matiari then he was moved to Sabu Rahu village and some other place, probably in the katcha area. “I think it was Matiari where I was first taken to. They didn’t let me offer prayers and gave me unclean clothes to wear. They didn’t even give me medicines and used to keep my hands tied all the time,” he said.

Lala Rehman said that it was purely a case of kidnapping for ransom because they had no enmity with anybody. His father had identified two culprits, Shaman alias Shamoo Ghelo and Faizu Rahu. “Other accused still remain at large,” he said.

Hyderabad DPO Ghulam Nabi Memon said that an intelligence agency informed police that the kidnappers belonged to Sukkur. Police also gleaned useful information from notorious dacoit Faiz Mohammad alias Faizu Rahu of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto district who was an important member of the kidnappers’ gang, he said.

Faizu disclosed that the hostage was being held in captivity in Qazi Ahmed by one Khadim Kalohi, the DPO said, adding that another accused, Shamoo Ghelo, was arrested while crossing River Indus.

He believed that police raids on the hideouts of suspects and arrests of important gang members built pressure, which led to Jam Samoon’s release.