Karachi kidnapping: Minor released after ransom payment

KARACHI: A five-year-old boy kidnapped a day earlier from Defence Housing Authority in the metropolis was rescued from Gulistan-e-Johar after a ransom was paid and through an operation conducted by law-enforcers. 

According to sources, the kidnappers had demanded Rs150 million from the boy’s father. However, after Citizens Police Liasion Committee (CPLC) intervened, kidnappers brought down the ransom demand to Rs0.3 million. At least 21 members of CPLC took part in the operation.

While talking to Geo News, CPLC Chief Zubair Habib confirmed they did pay ransom for the minor's release. He added they find out information through, a process through which they have managed to unearth 380 gangs over the past years. 

Sources further added that before releasing the boy, kidnappers called police and Rangers personnel to different areas of the city, including North Nazimabad, Board Office, Shahra-e-Faisal, Sohrab Goth and Hyderi Market. 

The kidnappers then asked the security personnel to throw the ransom money in an area near Rashid Minhas Road.

Although police obtained footage from different closed-circuit cameras in the area, the identity of the kidnappers was not ascertained. 

Mohammad Abban, 5, was abducted “while returning home from school with his mother in a car from the jurisdiction of Darakhshan Police Station”, CPLC said, adding that the kidnappers demanded a Rs150-million payment as ransom.

A “deal was finalised at Rs3 lacs (Rs300,000)”, said Zubair Habib, the chief of CPLC Sindh.

Earlier in the day, Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair took immediate notice of the incident, advising the CPLC and other concerned law enforcement authorities to recover the child safely as soon as possible.