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Freed kidnap boy 'really happy'
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The five-year-old boy freed by kidnappers in Pakistan after his family paid a £110,000 ransom was "really happy" to be reunited with his father, a spokesman for the British High Commission said.
Sahil Saeed, who was released on Tuesday after being snatched at gunpoint in Pakistan two weeks ago, met Raja Naqqash Saeed at the home of the British High Commissioner in Islamabad.
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."
Members of Sahil's extended family, including his grandmother, were also at the reunion.
Sahil and his father are expected to fly back to the UK, where their family are waiting at home in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
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 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.
On Wednesday night details emerged about the abduction and the police investigation, which involved Pakistani, UK, French and Spanish officers.
Spanish police said Sahil's father went to Paris to pay a £110,000 ransom for his release. Surveillance officers watched him make the transfer, saw the recipients divide up the cash, and later swooped on a number of suspects, according to a police statement.
After the youngster was freed, three people - two Pakistani men and a Romanian woman - were arrested when police raided a flat in Constanti, around 60 miles from Barcelona. About £105,000 in cash was also recovered. Two of the suspects were followed from Paris, and all three are due to appear in court in Spain.
Reader views (3)
I still think there is more to this story than at first meets the eye! Agree with Rob - most female coppers couldn't punch their way out of a wet paper bag, and some of the male coppers are so short nowadays (having done away with the height restrictions) they don't instil any confidence at all, but then that's equality and political correctness for you in the police force.
- Sue, Kent, 17/03/2010 12:52
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I look at the photos of the U.K. police, always hanging around in two's outside somebody's house. Look at the photo of the woman cop, could she jump a fence or run after anyone
without rolling over. Who is recruiting these people or are the U K police just so PC that they can't help themselves....
I wonder how the old Bobbies feel when they see their counterparts running around in BMW's and standing around instead of walking the BEAT!!
- Rob Decant, New York U S A, 16/03/2010 21:26
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There were a lot of comments about how heartless the father was for having left his kidnapped son in Pakistan and come back to UK. The boy has been released within a few days of his father coming to UK. It is pretty obvious the desperate father had come to UK to arrange and pay the ransom money to get his son freed. The law minister of Punjab province, Rana Sanaullah has said the money had been paid "not in Britain, but in another country".
May the family have peace now.
- Jim, London, 16/03/2010 08:10
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