Abductor held after crowd foils child kidnapping bid

Police on Thursday claimed to have apprehended around a dozen suspects during raids in various parts of the metropolis.

According to police officials, the suspects arrested were involved in various crimes. The police also recovered arms and ammunition from the suspects’ possession. The Korangi police arrested a suspect, Abdul Khaliq, allegedly involved in child kidnapping.

According to the police, he hailed from Afghanistan and had arrived in the city a couple of weeks ago. He has been accused of overpowering a three-year-old child, Arsalan, and trying to whisk him away in a gunny bag.

The police officials said the kidnapping bid was foiled when screams of the abducted child were noticed by residents of the area who caught the kidnapper and recovered the child. The crowd later informed the police about the incident after which the suspect was arrested. A case has been registered against the suspect and further investigations are under way.

Separately, the Zaman Town police arrested three youths and recovered arms from their possession. According to SHO Anzar Alam, the suspects were sons of retired and serving officials of the government and Sindh police, who committed robberies with using weapons of their fathers.

The youths have been identified as Atiq, Wasif and Adnan who are currently enrolled as students at a private university. The suspects were arrested when they were allegedly trying to rob a restaurant in the Korangi area. Referring to initial investigations, a police officer said the suspects were involved in over 100 cases of street crime as well as burglaries in various parts of the city including the New Town, Bahadurabad, Sharea Faisal, Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Korangi neighbourhoods.

The suspects have also been arrested in the past multiple times, the officer said, adding that they divided the stolen money and valuables equally among themselves. Cases have been registered against them while further investigations are under way.