LAHORE, Jan 11: An uncle turned out to be the main culprit who had kidnapped his two-and-a-half-years old nephew for ransom on January 6.

A special cell constituted for handling kidnapping for ransom cases safely recovered the boy, arrested the three accused and recovered the ransom money of Rs0.2 million from them on Friday.

CIA SP Umar Virk told reporters that Khalid Hussain had his nephew Ali Ahmad, son of Shahzad Ahmad of Samanabad, kidnapped when he went to a nearby shop to buy chocolates along with his another uncle Mobeen Ahmad.

He said the kidnappers later demanded Rs0.3 million from the family for the release of the boy and threatened to kill him if the matter was reported to the police.

Samanabad police had registered a kidnapping for ransom case.

Mr Virk said that a special cell against kidnapping for ransom in charge Inspector Tariq Ilyas Kiyani traced the calls of kidnappers and found the role of the abducted boy’s uncle Khalid Hussain in the case.

He said the victim’s father settled the amount of Rs200,000 for the release of his son with kidnappers when they contacted him on telephone.

On the direction of kidnappers, the parents along with the ransom amount reached the Katchi Kothi stop in Raiwind where culprits handed over the child to them.

After the recovery of the child, the police separately interrogated Khadim Hussain and Mobeen Ahmad.

Mr Virk said that Khadim Hussain confessed that he was a gambler and had conceived the plan to kidnap his nephew in connivance with his friends Muhammad Javed and Muhammad Salman.

On the information provided by Khadim, the police also arrested his accomplices.

Mr Virk said another similar incident took place in the Naulakha police station jurisdiction when Mehmood Alam of Faisalabad visited his in-laws in Township in Lahore along with his wife and children on Dec 23, 2012.

After leaving the family at his in-laws, Alam reached the railway station at 4.30pm to catch a train for Faisalabad.

In the meanwhile, his wife received a call from a kidnapper who demanded Rs2 million for his release.

Lahore CCPO Aslam Tareen also assigned the task to the special cell for the recovery of Alam.

The cell traced the call records of Mehmood Alam and came to know that ‘unidentified’ kidnappers were hiding in Rawalpindi.

A special team led by Tariq Kiyani reached Rawalpindi and ‘recovered’ Alam from a hotel in the Saddar area.

During interrogation, Alam told police that he had been jobless for many years and had staged the drama of his kidnap for ransom to get money from his in-laws.

Investigation DIG Chaudhry Shafique Ahmad announced cash awards and commendation certificates for the police team.