LARKANA, March 13: Police on Tuesday dug out the body of a toddler kidnapped and killed due to the overdose of tranquillizers from the house he was kept in, in Yar Muhammed Colony.

DSP Mohammed Amin Khoso said that five-year-old Ammar Hussain Jatoi was abducted last Friday from Shaikh Zayed Colony while playing near his house. Kidnappers contacted his father Azfar alias Shami Jatio, a rice mill owner the next day with a ransom demand of Rs5 million for boy's release, he said. The kidnappers called Nazeer Jatoi, uncle of the boy, on Sunday and reduced the ransom demand to Rs3 million, and further threatened to kill the boy if the money was not paid by Monday.

Kidnappers authenticated the attendance of the victim by telling the family to get the clothes of boy from under the body of a red car parked outside their house when his family expressed their doubts, SHO Waleed Riaz Ahmed Abbasi said.

Meanwhile, a team was constituted by the SSP Aitzaz Ahmed Goraya to probe into the case which arrested Zahid Gopang and Shahid Gopang after intercepting their calls. The arrested men disclosed the names of their accomplices as Abdul Ghaffar Brohi, Abdullah Magsi and Ali Magsi, Arif Bughio and police later nabbed all except for Arif Bughio.

Abdul Ghaffar Brohi turned out to be the main character in child's death and abduction, DSP said. The culprit told police that to quieten the boy, they kept giving him sleeping pills, and on Sunday he was given three tablets which proved fatal.

The boy was buried in the house the kidnappers had taken on rent in Yar Mohammed Colony. Police along with Abdul Ghaffar retrieved the body of the boy from the locked house early on Tuesday and sent it for post-mortem.

The examination was carried out by Prof Ghulam Qadir Kaheri, Head of the Department of Medical Juri-sprudence, Chandka Medical College and Police Surgeon Dr Safiullah Abbasi and Dr Badar Shaikh and Dr Azam Abro.

Later, the body was handed over to relatives who took it to Waleed Chowk with a demand to carry out a probe by District and Sessions Judge Larkana Abdul Ghani Soomro.