A five-year-old British boy Sahil Saeed has arrived home on Thursday after being freed by kidnappers in Pakistan, Geo news reported.
Sahil and his father, Raja, were reunited in the federal capital Islamabad overnight before boarding a flight home to Manchester.
Sahil, who was snatched from his grandmother’s house at gunpoint nearly two weeks ago while holidaying with his father in Pakistan, appeared “really happy” and enjoyed a game of football at the British High Commission in Islamabad.
The elated youngster had a few words for his mother waiting for him at home: “Mummy, I miss you… Mummy, I love you.”
The ordeal began when four men armed with grenades and Kalashnikov rifles stormed Sahil’s grandmother’s house in Jhelum, about 100km south of Islamabad, and tied up all the family members before leaving with Sahil.
Pakistani authorities, helped by British officials, launched a hunt for the boy, and 12 days later, Sahil was recovered safe and sound in a field not far from Jhelum.
“Sahil said he had been kept in a village and was looked after by a woman. He enjoyed a horse-riding trip and was given a bicycle and toy gun to play with,” a media correspondent said.
“Doctors who examined him said he was in good shape.”
Islamabad’s diplomatic envoy to London said the kidnappers were believed to have known Sahil’s family and had a grudge against them.
“The people must have known the family well,” Pakistani High Commissioner in London Wajid Shamsul Hasan said.
“They have had some kind of grudge against them which is why they kidnapped the child and tried then to blackmail the father.”
Two Pakistani men and a Romanian woman have faced a court in Tarragona, Spain, for an initial hearing.
They were taken into custody yesterday following a raid by police at a flat in northeastern Spanish town of Constanti after a £110,00 ($182,000) ransom was paid for Sahil’s safe return.
The trio had travelled from Constanti, which has a large Pakistani community, to Paris, where they collected the ransom from Sahil’s father and returned to Spain, where they were arrested.
Surveillance officers said they watched Saeed make the transfer to the kidnappers, saw the recipients divide up the cash, and later swooped on the suspects.
As well as the three held in Spain, two other people suspected of assisting in the abduction were arrested in Paris.
Saeed, 28, said in a statement that he was “completely overjoyed” to see his son “doing well” and “in good spirits”.
“I would like to pay tribute to the tireless efforts of the Pakistani and U.K. authorities that resulted in the safe return of Sahil to us,” he said.
Mother Akila Naqqash, who is at the family home in Oldham, northern England, spoke of her joy after Sahil was found.
“I need to see him with my own eyes to believe it,” she said.
Sahil’s great uncle Choudry Matlub said the family has planned a big celebration for the youngster.
It is a big disgrace to this Govt, when some Pakistani visits his home land along with his innocent kid and the same has been kidnapped in his home land. It is a signal from this Govt to all the Pakistanis living abroad, never ever visit Pakistan along with your children, because they are not safe in Pakistan. How the Govt can persuade the foreign investors to come to Pakistan for investment when the situation is so alarming. It is an advice to the Govt to clean the home from such barbarions & decoits and then make request for the investors to come to Pak for investment.