LAHORE, June 9: Police claimed on Sunday to have recovered a five-year-old boy who was kidnapped for ransom from his school in Harbanspura on Saturday.

The announcement to this effect was made by Lahore SSP (operations) Aftab Cheema at a news conference at the District Police Lines.

Ali, a class one student, was picked up by two motorcyclists from his school on the pretext that his grandfather who had deposited the child’s fees a while ago called him, said the SSP.

The SSP said the kidnappers later obtained the mobile phone number of the child’s father, Khalid, a Hall Road trader, by calling home. Then they contacted Khalid, informed him about the abduction and demanded Rs1 million ransom for the boy.

The SSP said Khalid immediately contacted the police who reacted without any delay in view of the recent killing of a five-year-old Usman of Baghbanpura at the hands of a kidnapper.

He said a special team was constituted under SP Cantt Dr Usman which traced the number of the telephone on which the kidnappers had contacted Ali’s father. The call was made from a PCO adjacent to Khalid’s house in Mughalpura.

The police later arrested the caller, later identified as Pervez, the SSP said. He said Pervez revealed that he and Khalid’s neighbour Qasim had abducted the boy.

The SSP said Pervez also informed that the boy was picked up from school by Qasim and his friend Faisal whereas he only contacted Khalid for demanding the ransom money.

Mr Cheema said that Qasim in the meanwhile disappeared and Pervez claimed that he did not know anything about Faisal. The police, however, located Faisal with the help of the area people but they could not arrest him from his house at Faisal Colony.

However, he said, the police came to know from Faisal’s house that he had taken the kidnapped boy to his brother’s house in Daska. The police rushed to Daska and recovered the boy at 4am.

The SSP said Qasim and Faisal could not be arrested but efforts were being made to apprehend them at the earliest.