Two more members of kidnapper’s ring held in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: The police are conducting raids to arrest more members of a ring after their accomplices disclosed picking up children to sell them only for Rs10,000 in other parts of the country.

Senior police officials said they were cross-checking the statement of the arrested six kidnappers belonging to the family including four women, who said they picked up two young girls from Peshawar in the last almost one month.

The police in Peshawar said they had arrested two members of gypsy families from the outskirts of the city after reports of involvement of a ring in picking up children for selling them for a meagre amount.

“The police are investigating to find about the families of girls which the group said to have kidnapped from Peshawar and later sold them in Punjab. Efforts will also be made to ensure their safe recovery as well as to break the network involved in this heinous crime,” said a source.

A source, however, said there was no report registered with the police about the kidnapping of two young girls from the limits of Badaber Police Station in recent weeks.

The alleged kidnappers in their statement said they picked up two girls from Zangli and Speen Jumaat areas within the limits of Badaber Police Station, only in the last one month.

The source said the Peshawar police were looking to interrogate the held people to find from where exactly they picked up the children.

IinspectoGgeneral of Ppolice Moazzam Jah Ansari said he had tasked the officers concerned with thoroughly investigating the matter in light of the statements of the held members of the ring.

“Six members of the gang have been arrested already. We are further investigating the matter to lay hand on other members of their ring and recover the girls they said to have kidnapped,” Capital City Police Officer Muhammad Ijaz Khan told The News.

“The videos and statements of the held people in presence of police have scared parents and children as they feel insecure after what the alleged kidnappers said in presence of the Khyber police. If their statement is true and details are found about the girls picked up, then this will help police bust a major network,” a source said.

The police officials in Khyber said they recently arrested a six-member group for kidnapping a young girl Mahnoor from Sipah with the help of locals. The group apparently sells cloth in a tri-cycle.

The officials said only one of the six kidnappers held from Khyber, Abdul Rahim, had a CNIC which showed him a resident of Sheikhupura who first settled in Bannu a few years ago and later shifted to Garhi Atta Muhammad, on the outskirts of Peshawar.

Officials said the group has confessed to kidnapping at least two children in the last one month while the third attempt was foiled.

One of the members of the gang in his statements before the media and police revealed that they had sold the girls somewhere in Punjab. He said the share he got for selling one girl was Rs10,000.

“I don’t know if the females were involved in other such incidents in the past,” one of the alleged kidnappers, Jafar Hussain, said. The police officials said his wife, sister and brother were also members of the gang.

The officials said the gang members were impersonating as vendors in different parts of Peshawar and adjoining districts and would target vulnerable children.

They said the police were are interrogating the held accused to verify their statements and find out about how many children and from where exactly they picked up in the past and where they sold them so efforts can be made for their safe recovery.

“We, the three women, got Rs20,000 each after we handed over the last girl to the people coming from Punjab. The people who deal with us have introduced themselves as Nadeem, Pappu and Nagina,” claimed one of the held women, Nazia, in front of investigation teams.

“One of the girls was kidnapped from Badaber. She was going home from school. We caught her after offering her chips,” said one of the held females. She said they know nothing about what happened to the girls in Punjab but someone said they remove their kidneys and other organs. This statement scared many parents after its video went viral on social media.

Police officials said they were checking details of such cases from the places mentioned by the kidnapers.

They said the cops would also find about the districts where these girls were said to have been sold so action could be taken along with the local police for the recovery of those girls.