Pakistani authorities hunting for the kidnapped British boy Sahil Saeed say that there is growing evidence of family involvement in the 5-year-old child’s abduction.
"There was someone very close to the family," said Rehman Malik, Pakistan’s Interior Minister, describing the gang’s profile, "because of the way the situation happened, the way the abduction has happened, the way the entry was made, the way the conduct was made during that whole operation."
Sahil Saeed was seized in the early hours of Thursday by four heavily armed men who broke into a family home in Jhelum, 65 miles south of Islamabad, and embarked on a protracted robbery. Stealing jewellery and cash they put 12 members of Saeed’s family through a six-hour ordeal, in which they were beaten and threatened with death, before making off with the child.
It has since emerged that Sahil had travelled to Jehlum with his father Raja after a row between his parents that left his mother Akila stranded in their Oldham home, allegedly without her passport. Family elders in Jhelum had encouraged a rapprochement between the couple, and the father and son were preparing to fly home when the kidnap occurred.
Mr Malik also told reporters gathered in the family home at Jhelum that Pakistani police were closing in on the kidnap gang.
"We have certain leads which we would not like to disclose but I’m warning to those abductors: ’Leave the boy because we are very near to you’," Mr Malik said. "We will make sure that we make an example out of it so that nobody dares to do these kinds of things in future," he added.
However police officials gave conflicting reports and admitted that contact with the kidnap gang appeared to have broken down, with none of the anticipated follow up calls received from the gang since the demand for a ransom of 10 million rupees.
"We are totally blind with no clue in hand so far about the kidnapped child," said Raja Mohammad Tahir Bashir, a senior police official. "But our investigation continues."
Raja Naqqash, 28, told reporters that he had been warned by police against giving any details of the case for fear that it panicked the gang into harming his son. But Sahil’s great uncle, Raja Shahid, said that family members were getting increasingly frustrated with police efforts, adding that they had no fresh contact from the kidnappers since a telephone call to Sahil’s father on Friday.
"We have not received any information from police about the kid. We are very upset and concerned about the health and security of Sahil," he said.
"We will now contact the police again to find out why they have not been able to recover the child so far. The kidnappers have also not contacted us again — they had contacted us twice in the beginning."
British Pakistanis in Jhelum spoke of a climate of fear that had been growing in the town over the past five years since criminal gangs turned their attention upon wealthy expatriate homes.
"They are especially targeting people here from England and Europe," said Manzoor Ashraf, 42, a Nottingham man on a regular trip to Jhelum with his two young children to see relatives. "Its about pounds and good money. All of a sudden they see us as an easy target."
A particularly large expatriate community from Jhelum live in Oldham and Nottingham. The town was well known during the era of the Indian Empire for the number of Punjabi soldiers recruited there into the British Army. Though Salim’s father is unemployed the kidnapping occurred in an affluent quarter where expatriate money has produced a flourishing expansion in large, three-storey houses.
"We’ve got problems in Nottingham and Oldham on a Friday night but nothing compared to here," Mr Ashraf added. Like other British Pakistanis who were gathered at the house to support Sahil’s family he said that suspicions of inside involvement with the abduction were a commonly held local belief.
"People here tell us ’Why worry about it all so much?’ It’s all to do with business inside the family, they say. Here, say, your wife’s side of the family could take on some extreme measures if they aren’t happy with you. It’s not like EastEnders where you get divorced then go out and have a drink together."
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