Sahil’s ordeal is over!

Reporter: BEATRIZ AYALA
Date online: 18 March 2010

Happy ending to horror tale of kidnap and fear

Five-year-old Shaw boy Sahil Saeed is coming home.

The little Rushcroft primary school pupil, kidnapped ay gunpoint in Pakistan by raiders who held him for two weeks and demanded a £110,000 ransom, was released on Tuesday. Family members rallied round to scrape together the money by selling gold jewellery and heirlooms.

The cheery youngster, of Queen Street, was reunited with his father just after 6.30am UK time today at the home of the British High Commissioner in Islamabad.

Members of Sahil’s extended family, including his grandmother, were also at the reunion as the news broke across Britain.

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

“Sahil was playing football with his father in the garden and seemed really happy.”

Sahil and his father are expected to fly back to Manchester Airport at 6pm today before being whisked away in a private car back to Shaw, where overjoyed family members are anxiously waiting. Sahil was on holiday with his father and other relatives in Jhelum in the Punjab region when he was snatched by gunmen on March 4.

He was found by locals wandering alone in a field in the village of Dinga, crying and wearing only one shoe, around 15 miles away on Tuesday and handed over to police.

The boy has since been looked after by British officials while his father travelled from the UK. Last night details emerged about the international abduction and the police investigation, which involved police in four countries — Pakistan, UK, France and Spain.

Spanish police said Sahil’s father went to Paris to pay a £110,000 ransom for his release, but it was not clear whether he was aware of the sophisticated police operation or that he was under surveillance.

Officers watched him make the transfer and saw the recipients divide up the cash.

Armed officers in body armour later swooped on a number of suspects, according to a police statement. After the youngster was freed, three people — two Pakistani men in their 40s, believed to be brothers, and a Romanian woman — were arrested when police raided a flat in Constanti, on the edge of Tarragona around 60 miles from Barcelona.

About £105,000 in cash was also recovered. Two of the suspects were followed from Paris. All three are due to appear in court in Spain today.

Two other people accused of helping the kidnappers, believed to be relatives of the two Pakistani men, were also arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport in the French capital.

Interpol alerted Spanish authorities to the abduction shortly after the boy was taken.

Mr Saeed (28) returned to Manchester four days after the abduction as instructed by the kidnappers, but was then told to go to Paris with the money.

Police were watching when the cash was handed over on a street in the French capital. Following his safe return, Sahil was yesterday taken from the High Commission in Islamabad back to Jhelum for a brief appearance in front of magistrates.

The five-year-old, who spoke for 11 minutes, told the court he was well looked after during the ordeal.

Sahil’s mother, Akila Naqqash (31), said today she had spoken to her son by phone and he had sounded none the worse for the ordeal.