Police searching for accomplices of child kidnappers

PESHAWAR: The police are investigating to find accomplices of the kidnappers who abducted children from the provincial capital in recent weeks to sell them in Punjab.

An official said they were also working to find the families of the kidnapped children. The gang members revealed they kidnapped two children in the last one month in Peshawar.

Their video statements went viral on social media, causing anger and concern among the locals who asked the police to bust the entire network and recover the children.

The Khyber district police last week said the cops with the help of locals recently arrested a six-member group for kidnapping a young girl named Mahnoor from Sipah locality in Bara tehsil.

The group that included four women apparently sell cloth on a tricycle.

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

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

One member of the gang in his statements before the media and police revealed that they sold the girls somewhere in Punjab. He said that he got Rs10,000 as his share. Police officials in Khyber said the gang members were impersonating as vendors in different parts of Peshawar and adjoining districts and would target vulnerable children.