KARACHI, March 17: A teenage boy, kidnapped in North Nazimabad more than a month ago, was on Saturday found strangled to death in Ahsanabad after two suspects told the police that they had killed him a day after kidnapping him despite receiving a ransom of Rs600,000.

“Thirteen-year-old Huzaifa Amir was kidnapped from outside his home in North Nazimabad’s Block N on Jan 27,” said Citizens-Police-Liaison Committee chief Ahmed Chinoy.

“The kidnappers contacted the family on Jan 29 and demanded a ransom of more than Rs5 million. The victim’s parents did not inform the police, negotiated on their own and brought the ransom amount down to Rs600,000.”

The kidnappers asked the captive’s father, Amir Hafeez, to come alone to Kotri on Jan 4 with the ransom money. When he reached there, he got another call directing him to return to Karachi and put the money bag on the main railway tracks in the Malir area, said another official associated with the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC).

“The father followed the instructions and put the amount on the railway tracks in Malir and returned home. He was assured that his son would return home in the next few hours, but it never happened,” he added.

When their child did not return, the worried parents finally approached the CPLC and narrated their ordeal. Police investigators and the CPLC tried to trace the suspects’ whereabouts through their cellphone records and got a breakthrough on Feb 9 when the kidnappers again contacted the family.

“The kidnappers called the parents again and demanded more money for their son’s release,” said the CPLC chief. “This time we kept them engaged with the parents and in the meantime tried to locate their hideouts. They kept using different numbers and locations to call the parents and finally agreed to another Rs600,000 to be left near Ahsanabad alongthe Superhighway.”

Before the amount was handed over to the kidnappers by the victim’s father, he said, the police intervened and arrested the two suspects, identified as Adeel and Murad, and seized two TT pistols from them.

“During interrogation it emerged that Adeel worked at the boutique of the victim’s mother and was laid off a few months ago,” he added. “They told us that since Huzaifa knew Adeel very well as her mother’s employee, they strangled him the very next day of the kidnapping and buried him at an abandoned place in the Ahsanabad graveyard.”

Adeel’s younger brother was also involved in the crime, he said, adding that he was still at large and efforts were being made for his arrest as well.

Acting on the information provided by the suspects, the police later recovered the victim’s body after completing required legal formalities.

“An FIR (86/2012) relating to the kidnapping was already registered with the North Nazimabad police station under Sections 365-A (kidnapping for ransom) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against unidentified persons,” said the CPLC chief. “The suspects will now be nominated in that FIR and more sections (relating to the murder etc) will be incorporated in it.”