LAHORE, Jan 23: The CIA Police’s Special Cell against Kidnapping for Ransom has recovered a two-year-old girl abducted from the Ichhra police precincts a few days ago and arrested the kidnapper.

According to a press release, Jazbia, daughter of Muhammad Saghir of Ichhra, was kidnapped on Jan 19 at around 8pm while playing in the street. Two days later, the kidnapper contacted her family and demanded a ransom of Rs1 million. A case was registered at Ichhra police station.

DIG (Investigation) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmad tasked CIA SP Umar Virk with the recovery of the child and arrest of the criminal. Virk formed a police team, headed by kidnap-for-ransom cell in-charge Tariq Ilyas Kiyani.

The police team asked the girl’s family to negotiate with the kidnapper who agreed on a ransom amount of Rs200,000. The father of the child was asked to bring the money to Lorry Adda, while the police, besides trying to trace the phone calls, also started surveillance of the location, but the kidnapper did not turn up.

Later, the kidnapper telephoned the family and threatened them with killing the child as the police had been involved. The police traced the location where the call had been made from, raided it and arrested culprit Sameer Ali, and recovered the child safely.

During interrogation, the kidnapper said he was a nephew of the complainants and had committed the crime for money.

ROBBERIES: Robbers looted cash and valuables worth Rs2.5 million in three major hits in the provincial capital on Wednesday.

Three robbers barged in the house of Javed in M-Block in Sabzazar police limits, locked family members in a room and escaped after looting cash and valuables worth Rs830,000.

Three robbers stormed into the house of Riaz Husain in Z-Block Phase III in Defence-A police station limits and took away cash and valuables worth Rs800,000.

Two armed men entered the house of Zaman in B-Block of New Muslim Town in Muslim Town police jurisdiction and looted Rs50,000 in cash, jewellery and licences of weapons.

HONOUR KILLING: A 30-year-old man was gunned down allegedly by three men for the sake of honour in Bhati Gate area on Wednesday.

Police said Sher Gujjar was going to the bazaar when Ayub, Ibrahim and their unidentified accomplice opened fire on him and fled. The injured succumbed to his wounds at a hospital.

The police said the attackers were the brothers of victim’s wife Shahar Bano of Sialkot.

Gujjar contracted love marriage with Bano around six months ago, took her to Lahore and stayed at his relative’s house.

The police said the woman’s family was unhappy over the marriage.

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