RAWALPINDI: Police have recovered a college student who was kidnapped on Saturday and took into custody one of the kidnappers along with the vehicle used for the abduction.

Other members of the four-man gang are still at large and raids are underway to apprehend them.

The kidnapped boy, Haseebul Hassan, 19, was recovered from the basement of a house that the kidnappers had leased out in the Gulshanabad area of Adiala Road.

City Police Officer Syed Khalid Hamdani, while addressing a press conference at the Police Lines Headquarters on Monday, revealed that the boy was kidnapped on his way home in Askari 14 on Saturday night.

Haseeb, accompanied by a friend on a motorcycle, was intercepted by four unidentified persons riding in a black car. CCTV footage showed that the two motorcycle riders were stopped by a black car in which the kidnappers were travelling. Two men hurriedly got off the car and dragged one of the motorcycle riders – Haseeb – and bundled him into their car.

The CPO said the kidnappers sent a video of Haseeb to his parents in which Rs20 million were demanded for the safe release of the boy. “Papa, pay them what they are demanding; otherwise, they will kill me,” a terrified Haseeb said in his video message to his parents.

Shortly after the kidnapping came to light, the father of the victim, Imranul Hassan, a computer engineer by profession, lodged an FIR with the Saddar Bairooni police, saying his son was returning home with his friend on Saturday at 10:30pm when he was abducted by men in their 40s, travelling in a black car. He further said kidnappers demanded Rs20 million for the safe release of his son.

CPO Hamdani further revealed that soon after the incident was reported, a police team was constituted to track down the kidnappers and recover the abducted boy.

He said that kidnappers were traced by the police team who also recovered the boy, arrested the main accused Afrasiab, recovered a Kalashnikov, and the car used by the kidnappers, on Sunday.

The abducted boy had been tied with a piece of rope and was detained in the basement of a house in Gulshanabad.

Police said raids were underway to arrest the three accomplices and hoped that they would be brought to justice soon.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2023