Fresh hopes dashed in hunt for Sahil

Reporter: BEATRIZ AYALA
Date online: 11 March 2010

MEDIA spotlight . . . the national press gather in Shaw

Hopes that snatched Shaw five-year-old Sahil Saeed had been found were dashed this morning as the police chief leading the investigation in Pakistan confirmed the search is still on-going.

Muhammad Aslam Tareen, a detective based in Punjab, said he could “categorically confirm” the youngster, of Queens Street, is still missing.

Mr Tareen said: "We are closing in, yes. But have we found him yet? No. We hope to have something in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

The British High Commission in Islamabad said UK diplomats were “urgently chasing” reports that kidnapped five-year-old Sahil Saeed has been found safe and well. There was confusion this morning after Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah confirmed that Sahil had been found in the Punjab Province yesterday and was in good health.

Senior Pakistani police said a number of arrests had been made, including one woman, and maintained that members of Sahil’s family were involved in his disappearance. But hopes of a speedy reunion were dashed when both the High Commission and Foreign Office said they were unable to gain any confirmation and had no evidence he had been found.

Kahlid Mahmoud, superintendent of the police investigation in Jhelum, said the claims Sahil had been found were false.

Mystery still surrounds the little boy’s whereabouts as well as those of his father Raja Naqqash Saeed.

Five-year-old Sahil was taken from his grandmother’s house last Wednesday night in the Punjab region by men wielding guns and grenades.

The gang struck as Sahil’s father was loading suitcases into a taxi ready for their flight back to Manchester. They demanded a £100,000 ransom for the boy’s safe return.

It had been reported that Raja Naqqash Saeed had left Pakistan and returned to Britain on Tuesday night. But sources said both father and son had not been on any planes leaving Pakistan and it was believed they were still in the country.

Speaking from their Shaw home this morning, Sahil’s family said they had had no contact with Raja and were unsure of what was happening with regards to the investigation.

They appealed for video or photographic proof that Sahil was in good health or in safe hands.

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, said: “Whether this is incompetence or deliberate it’s a very cruel confusion and we must remember there’s a five-year-old innocent boy in the middle of this.”

One family friend told the Chronicle: “It’s a very murky situation.”