-
Pakistan police 'confident' of British boy rescue
Police in Pakistan have said they are confident that a five-year-old British boy kidnapped at gunpoint will be returned to his family within hours.Sources said officers were questioning two arrested people "very close" to those suspected of taking Sahil Saeed.
Sahil, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, and his father were at a house in the Punjab city of Jhelum on Wednesday when robbers broke in and seized the boy.
The attackers are said to have demanded a £100,000 ransom for Sahil's return.
A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that one man had been arrested in connection with the kidnapping.
However, the BBC understands that the two people being questioned are among several to have been arrested.
Correspondent Aleem Maqbool said police sources had revealed that officers traced the kidnappers through calls made on mobile phones stolen from Sahil's family.
Armed intruders
Pakistani police investigator Raja Tahir Bashir said: "God willing, we will recover the boy very soon," he said, declining to give further details.
"We are doing whatever is possible."
The boy's father, Raja Saeed, had been in Pakistan for two weeks visiting his mother with Sahil.
Mr Saeed said they were just about to leave for the airport at 2300 local time (1800 GMT) on Wednesday when four men - armed with guns and a grenade - approached the house.
Up to 10 family members inside the house were beaten by the intruders during a six-hour ordeal, he said.
The robbers took items believed to be jewellery and money and fled with the boy. They have demanded a ransom equivalent to £100,000.
They said they would be back in touch, but the boy's father said he had not heard from them.
Mr Saeed, who has been based in the UK for about seven years, told BBC News he was ready to swap places with his only son.
"I don't have any money at all," he said. "They can take me if they want - just let my son come back. I am nothing without him."
And, speaking at the family's home in Oldham, the child's mother, Akila Naqqash, said there was no chance her family would be able to pay the ransom.
"Sahil is a really quiet child - he's no harm to nobody," she said.
"Why would they want to take my son? What have we done? We've done nothing wrong. This is a normal holiday. Every family takes a holiday.
"How is he coping with strangers? Four grown men. I don't know what they are doing to him."
'Relatively safe'
Jane Sheridan, head teacher of Rushcroft Primary School, which Sahil attends, said everyone was "deeply concerned" about his welfare and they were doing all they could to support his family.
Pakistan's High Commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan described the kidnapping as a "condemnable act" that had caused the Pakistani government concern.
George Sherriff, a spokesman for the British High Commission in Islamabad, said it was "continually monitoring the situation" and was in touch with Sahil's family.
Our correspondent said officers thought the kidnapping was unlikely to be the result of a family feud or personal grudge.
He said there were isolated incidents of kidnapping in Pakistan by criminal gangs who wanted to make money, occasionally linked to militant groups.
However, there was nothing to suggest this was the case in this kidnapping, he added.
Our correspondent says Jhelum is not in a tribal area and is a relatively safe part of Pakistan, where many British Pakistanis are from.
The family's MP, Immigration Minister Phil Woolas, said the family was being supported by the authorities in both the UK and Pakistan.
"This is the number one priority for the Foreign Office in Pakistan. But the focus is still on the police operation."
He added that the government would review its travel advice for this area of Pakistan once the situation was resolved.
Related Article..British boy kidnapped: Mum breaks down over £100,000 ransom demand
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
0 comments: