60 years ‘just punishment’ for Sahil kidnapper

Photo: Photo: Dave Thompson/PA Wire

FLASHBACK: Sahil and his mother Akila Naqqash after his release from kidnappers a year ago.

THE family of an Oldham schoolboy snatched in Pakistan say the 60-year jail sentence for his kidnapper is a just punishment.

But the ordeal continues for relatives of six-year-old Sahil Saeed as they await the result of court proceedings in Spain of three other people allegedly involved in the kidnapping that sparked headlines around the world.

Sahil was taken during an armed raid as he was preparing to fly back to Manchester on March 4 last year after a two-week visit to his grandmother’s house in Jhelum with his father Raja Saeed.

The Rushcroft Primary School pupil was released unharmed 12 days later, after a £110,000 ransom was paid, and was found wandering in a field.

Gang member Imran Husain was jailed for 60 years in Rawalpindi on Thursday with the court ordering that all his belongings be seized.

Raja said: “I think they made a very good decision. It’s the right punishment. Sixty years is a good decision as he will spend the rest of his life in a Pakistani prison. Whatever he owns — a house or land in his name — will be taken as well and there was a 50,000 (£400) rupee fine.”

Wife Akila Naqqash said: “To me it’s a reasonable sentence — it’s a long time.”

Speaking of the ordeal, she added: “It was really hard but I always had family support to keep me going until they found Sahil.”

Court proceedings are taking place in Tarragona, near Barcelona, against Mouhamed Sazeiz (33), Mohammed Zahed Salem (29) and Monica Neruja (24).

Raja said: “I’m not relieved at the moment as a trial is running in Spain and we have to wait for that decision as well.

“We can’t say we are totally satisfied as a lot of things are going on. When things are finished we will be more than happy and we will get back to our normal life then.

“Sahil is OK. He’s back to normal in his own life and back to school.

“We would like to say thank-you to the Punjabi Government and all the police in Pakistan who helped me and Greater Manchester Police who have helped me a lot.”

The family cleared their savings and sold jewellery to pay the ransom.

Raja said: “Our money is in Spain. We are still waiting for the Spanish courts to make a decision. We hope to get the money back.”

The family, which includes Sahil’s younger sisters Anisha and Hafsah, have moved from Shaw to Brompton Street, Glodwick.

Mr Saeed’s mother and brother live in Pakistan but the family is reluctant to go there again.

The ransom was paid in Paris where a Pakistani man and a Romanian woman who picked it up were tracked by police to Catalonia in Spain.

Two Pakistani men and a Romanian woman were arrested once Sahil was released.

Arrests were also made in Jhelum during a series of police raids. A huge quantity of arms and ammunition was also recovered.

Pakistan regional police chief Muhammad Aslam Tareen, who led the investigation, last year claimed two professional criminals, one of them Husain, had admitted taking part in the kidnapping during an opportunistic burglary

The other was later shot as two armed men tried to free him from custody as he was being taken from a court. All three men died when police opened fire.

GMP and authorities in Pakistan were recently honoured for their joint efforts to bring Sahil home at a ceremony in the House of Commons.