Child reunited with mother; kidnappers arrested

Jan 08, 2019

TOBA TEK SINGH: A two-year-old boy who was kidnapped from Lahore to be sold in Kamalia has been reunited with his mother after the kidnappers’ gang was busted with the help of a local journalist.

Kamalia City police handed over Muhammad Ahmed to his mother, Kausar Bibi, at the Kamalia Press Club on Monday, in the presence of Lahore Chuhng Sub-Inspector Ghiasuddin.

Ahmad, son of an army soldier, Tahirul Hasan, was kidnapped by two kidnappers from Lahore to be sold in Kamalia.

District Police Officer Sadiq Ali Dogar said during the initial investigation the suspects, Yasin and his son Adnan, had disclosed that they had kidnapped the child from a street of Lahore’s Azeemabad locality in the Chuhng police area. He contacted Lahore Saddar SP Syed Ali who sent a team along with Kausar Bibi to Kamalia to receive the child. He said both the suspects, residents of Chak 37/14 L, Chichawatni, were involved in kidnapping and selling children and probe was underway from them regarding their involvement of more children and their accomplices.

DSP Nasir Nawaz told a press conference the police and journalists had a tip-off the suspects were selling minor children in Kamalia after kidnapping them from various cities of the country. They used to tell people that they were bringing the destitute children from orphanages.

Under a plan, journalist Rana Amjad bargained with the gang who agreed to sell him the child for Rs350,000 and the suspects, Yasin and Adnan, brought the child to Kamalia where they handed him over to Amjad after receiving cash. The police team, led by Kamalia City SHO Kamran Hayat, was already there in civvies and they arrested the suspects.

SHO Jamil Qaiser of Chuhng police said a case had been registered against both the suspects on application of Sakhawat Ali, the maternal uncle of the child. He said after the completion of investigation by the Toba Tek Singh police, both the suspects would be handed over to Chuhng police for further investigation.

BY-ELECTION: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf candidate Mian Shahzad Ahmad swept Toba Tek Singh Municipal Committee by-election on Monday after the PML-N local cadre also announced support for him. The PML-N candidate, Naveed Musa, got only one vote against 39 of the winner.

The election was held under the supervision of presiding officer, District Education Authority Chief Executive Officer Syed Tauqir Hussain.

The PTI had 25 councillors in the house of 40. Although there were initially differences in its ranks but all the PTI councillors finally got united and dissident group’s candidate, Mian Amer Yasim, withdrew his nomination papers in favour of Shahzad Ahmad.

Leader of the opposition, Umer Farooq Bajwa, announced before casting vote along with PML-N’s 14 other councillors that his party had decided that all of its councillors would cast their votes for the PTI candidate unconditionally. He told the media the PML-N leadership had held talks with the PTI’s Mian Shahzad Ahmad who had assured it that he would run his office impartially and he had sought the cooperation of the opposition councillors for development of the city. That’s why the PML-N councillors had unanimously decided to vote for him.

The slot of the municipal committee chairman was vacated after Ghulam Nabi Gujjar had resigned from his office on Sept 22 who had promised when he had won chairmanship in 2016 that after completing one-and-a-half years as chairman, he would resign from his office and Mian Shahzad Ahmad would be elected as chairman for the remaining period through the by-election.

After the election, the PTI councillors and workers danced on drumbeats in the MC Complex.

(Daily Dawn)

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