KARACHI, March 4: A suspected kidnapper was gunned down in an exchange of fire with police and his two brothers, who along with him had abducted two students over a month ago, were arrested in Surjani Town on Friday, officials said.The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs30 million for the students, in their early 20s, who were recovered unhurt by a joint team of police’s Anti-Violent Crime Cell and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee after the shoot-out.

Investigators said that the gang being run by a family was found involved in some high-profile kidnapping cases also.

It was the 20th joint raid by the law enforcers, who said they had busted as many gangs involved in kidnapping for ransom since March 2010.

“It was on the evening of January 18 when two friends, Saad Ali and Shaharyar Javed — both students of a private university — were kidnapped from the Bahadurabad area,” said CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy.

“The families received repeated calls from unknown phone numbers for ransom after the kidnapping. The calls stopped after Jan 27 and resumed on Feb 1 when the kidnappers in separate conversations with the two families demanded a total of Rs30 million for the release of the two students.”

Mr Chinoy said after due surveillance of the phone calls, the CPLC team finally located the hideout of the kidnappers. He added that initially two suspects, Hasan Bux and Hazoor Bux, were picked up by the police. “Both the suspects were questioned and findings helped the police to raid a place in Surjani Town’s area near Taiser Town and Khuda Ki Basti parallel to the Northern Bypass,” he added.

Noticing the disappearance of his two brothers, the prime suspect became alert and changed his locations a couple of times before finally being tracked down by the police, he said.

He said the joint team of law enforcers surrounded a three-room house in a deserted area and gave a couple of warnings to the kidnapper to surrender. “However, he refused to give up and fired at the police party. The retaliation from the police force left him dead on the spot while the victim boys were recovered unhurt. He was identified as Rasool Bux,” the CPLC chief added.

He said all the three brothers were involved in several cases of kidnapping for ransom and had connections with key suspects of high-profile cases in the interior of Sindh and Punjab.The police claimed to have seized four TT pistols and multiple cellphone SIMs (subscriber identity module) of almost every service provider from the possession of the suspects. The officials said that the suspects used to make calls for ransom with the SIMs.

The investigators said one of the students was a son of a senior Karachi Building Control Authority officer and the other’s father was a businessman.

“We expect to get some important information through the course of investigations and firmly believe that the suspects were involved in at least 15 or 20 high-profile cases of kidnapping for ransom,” the CPLC chief said.