KARACHI, Feb 6: Three alleged kidnappers were arrested and two children who were kidnapped along with a car they were travelling in were recovered on Sunday following a shoot-out with police in Clifton, the police said. The police described the incident as “mobile kidnapping”.

The police said that the suspects — identified as Illyas, Nazakat Ali and Noor Mohammad — first targeted Sheikh Furrukh who was driving in the Khayaban-i-Seher area.

The suspects stopped his car and snatched cash and a cellphone from him.

The suspects got into the car and made him drive around the area for some time.

After almost an hour, when the car reached the Sub-Marine intersection, the suspects left the car and targeted another vehicle (ADF-283) standing at a traffic signal and got into the vehicle of Ghulam Mustafa by force.

Mr Mustafa, his son Tariq and two children, Fahad and Jawwad, sons of Taufeeq Ahmed, were travelling in the vehicle, Frere police station SHO Shahzad Saleem said.

However, when Mr Mustafa tried to resist the suspects, they hit him with the pistol butt and threw out him and Tariq off the car after taking the car some distance away.

Sheikh Furrukh, the occupant of the first car, immediately informed the police on '15' as soon as the suspects left him and his car. He had borrowed a cellphone from a passer-by and passed on the registration number of the snatched car to the police.

“Shortly after getting the information, we intercepted the car on the Lilly Bridge where the suspects opened fire at the police,” said the SHO.

“However we reacted cautiously and cornered the car because we had information about the presence of the children in the car.”

The police seized three pistols, four cellphones and some cash from the suspects.

Later the children told the police that they were on a ride with their uncle, and stopped at the traffic lights where the three men got into the car.

“They threatened to kill us if we made any noise,” the children told the police.