LARKANA, Nov 10 Police on Tuesday busted a gang of five kidnappers and recovered a kidnapped boy from their captivity, said DPO Irfan Baloch.

He told journalists that Ali Haidar Jatoi, Fareed Bhutto, Irfan Jiskani, Subhan Chandio and Usman Chandio had kidnapped Ali Raza Khakhrani, student of class four, from Allahabad on October 29.

The DPO said the kidnappers kept the boy in the city for one day and then shifted him to Karachi in a car, where he was lodged in flat A-9 of Johar Complex on University Road.

Munawwar Ali Khakhrani, who had adapted the boy, said that after the kidnapping two persons had contacted him over cell phone using different SIMs and he told the DPO about the calls.

“Initially they demanded Rs9 million ransom but I said that being a poor man, I could not arrange such a huge amount,” Munawwar said. Then they reduced their demand to Rs3 million and threatened that if the amount was not paid, they would sell the boy to another gang which smuggled children to Gulf states where they were used as jockeys in camel race, he said. He refused to pay that amount too, Munawwar said.

He shared the information with the DPO and police arrested some close relatives of the suspects in Larkana and grilled them, he said.

The police intercepted the kidnappers' phone calls and got conversation recorded, he said. The kidnappers, sensing something fishy, decided to shift the boy to another place, the DPO said.

Two teams were constituted to trace and arrest the kidnappers, the DPO said. The teams arrested Ali Haidar Jatoi, Fareed Bhutto, Irfan Jiskani, Subhan Chandio and Usman Chandio near Sann in Dadu district while they were shifting the boy to an undisclosed destination in a private coach, he said.

He said that the boy was probably being shifted to Balochistan for being sold to another gang of criminals.

Ali Haidar Jatoi and Fareed Bhutto were produced before journalists along with the boy. The boy pointing to Ali Haidar Jatoi said that he had been threatening him of dire consequences in case of non-payment of ransom.

The Dari police have registered a case under section 365-A (kidnapping for ransom) of the PPC and 13-D of the Arms Ordinance against the five accused as two unlicensed revolvers had been recovered from their possession.

Our Naushahro Feroze correspondent adds The Tharushah police have claimed to have recovered a kidnap victim from the kutcha area near Darbelo on Tuesday.According to the police, they received spy information that some bandits were present in the area. When they reached there, the bandits had already fled, leaving behind Aslam Arain, who was kidnapped from near Bhirya Road a few days ago.

However, there are rumours that the relatives of Aslam had paid Rs500,000 ransom to the kidnappers for his release.