A five-year-old British boy kidnapped at gunpoint while on a family holiday in Pakistan this month has been released, the British high commission in Islamabad said yesterday.
Sahil Saeed was taken from his grandmother’s house in the town of Jhelum, about 100km south of Islamabad, on March 4.
“This is fantastic news. It brings to an end the traumatic ordeal faced by Sahil and his family,” British High Commissioner Adam Thomson said in a statement read out by a spokesman for the diplomatic mission.
“I would like to praise the high level of cooperation between UK and Pakistani authorities and in particular I would like to thank the Jhelum police for their role in bringing about the safe return of Sahil,” he said.
The British high commission gave no details on when, where or how the boy had been released, nor confirmed his current whereabouts.
The circumstances surrounding the boy’s disappearance were also confused.
Relatives said he was taken by robbers who stole jewelry, cash and demanded a US$120,000 ransom, but Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik alleged that he was taken by someone “very close to the family.”
“We were informed an hour before that Sahil has been recovered, but I can’t disclose the authorities who recovered him,” Sahil’s great uncle Raja Basharat said by telephone from Jhelum.
“We are at home. The whole family has gathered. We are very happy, we are thanking God and we hope that we will see him after two hours,” he said.
The family vigorously denied claims that the kidnapping was an inside job, but another relative contacted yesterday said he had no information on Sahil’s release.
There was no immediate comment from Pakistani police.
Although kidnappings of Westerners are rare in Pakistan, kidnappings of locals are all too common in Pakistani towns and cities.
They are often related to family quarrels, love affairs, property disputes or simple quests for money — particularly for the wealthier victims — by criminal gangs, some of whom are connected to Islamist militant networks.
Sahil’s Pakistani father had said the abductors stormed the house armed with guns and grenades, subjecting the family to a six-hour ordeal while he and his son were preparing to take a taxi to the airport and fly home.
Police detained the taxi driver and had said they were confident of recovering the child.
In Oldham, northern Britain, Sahil’s mother Akila Naqqash had made an emotional plea for her son’s safe return, telling his captors: “I just want my son back. All is forgiven, I will forgive you.”
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