Pakistan kidnap boy back home in Britain

THE five-year-old boy freed by kidnappers in Pakistan after his family paid a £110,000 ransom was reunited with his mother in Britain last night.

Sahil Saeed was on holiday with his father, Raja Naqqash Saeed, and other relatives in Jhelum in the Punjab region when he was snatched by gunmen on March 4.

His kidnapping prompted an international police operation, involving his father handing over a ransom equivalent to about €123,000 to the suspected kidnappers in Paris and the arrest of five people, three of whom were due to appear in court in Spain yesterday.

After handing over the ransom, his father returned to Pakistan where he was reunited earlier yesterday, along with other members of his family, with Sahil at the home of the British High Commissioner.

Last night the pair flew into Manchester from Islamabad.

A spokesman for the commission said: “Everyone was in very good spirits and of course delighted about his return.”

A statement released by Mr Saeed said he was “completely overjoyed” at being reunited with his son.

The statement continued: “Sahil is doing well, is in good spirits.

“I would like to pay tribute to the tireless efforts of the Pakistani and British authorities that resulted in the safe return of Sahil to us.”

Some of the kidnappers were “perhaps known to the family”, a Pakistani government official said yesterday.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the Pakistani High Commissioner in London, told reporters: “This is what the authorities and investigators in Pakistan believe.

“The people that have been arrested in Pakistan, they must have known the family well.

“They have had some kind of grudge against them, which is why they kidnapped the child and tried then to blackmail the father.”

Pakistani police arrested a number of people after Sahil was taken.

Two men arrested in Paris in connection with the kidnapping have been released, French police said yesterday.

The pair, believed to be father and son, were relatives of two of the people arrested in Spain.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the boy’s return to Britain.

He said: “I do think it is very good news. After 12 days, Sahil will be able to return to this country.

“It’s obviously been a very anxious time for everybody and the whole country has been following this sad episode, where a five-year-old to be separated from his family is really a very terrible experience.”