Five-year-old recovered hours after abduction in DHA

A five-year-old boy who was kidnapped from Khayaban-e-Qasim in Defence was freed on the night between Wednesday and Thursday, but not before the parents paid a negotiated ransom amount.
Mohammad Ubaan, son of Mohammad Ghufran, was snatched while he had been returning home from school with his mother in a car on Wednesday afternoon. SHO Abid Soomro of the Sahil police station told The News that two men, also riding a car and accompanied by motorcyclists, had intercepted the four-wheeler at Street 26 on Khayaban-e-Qasim and taken away the child.
The family told the police about the incident and sought help. The police immediately passed on the information to the paramilitary Rangers’ Special Task Force (STF), the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC).
District South Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Javed Akbar Riaz told The News that the abductors had demanded Rs150 million for the release of the boy. He added that a joint team engaged the suspects and made them agree to release Ubaan for Rs300,000.
Police assisted Ubaan’s father and took him to Gulistan-e-Jauhar, where the kidnappers handed over the boy to him after receiving the ransom money. Justifying the release of the boy over the payment of the ransom amount, SSP Riaz said the parents had requested the police not to intervene until they got their child back.
He added that the safe recovery of the child was the top priority of the police, and now they would trace the culprits and put them behind bars for legal action. SHO Soomro said no case had been registered as the complainant had not contacted the police yet. CPLC chief Zubair Habib said in his press statement that the Rangers’ STF, AVCC and CPLC had recovered boy in a joint effort, and raids were being conducted for the arrest of the culprits.