Gunmen free four Nigerian journalists in oil delta

July 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Nigeria, July 18 (Reuters) – Gunmen in Nigeria’s southeastern oil region released four local journalists and their driver unharmed on Sunday, after nearly a week in captivity.

The kidnappers ambushed a convoy of cars carrying the journalists in the southern state of Akwa Ibom on Monday as it approached Aba, the capital of neighbouring Abia state. [ID:nLDE66B1KK]

“Due to the pressure from various quarters, the kidnappers had to release us this morning,” Wahab Oba, chairman of the Lagos state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, told reporters shortly after being freed.

Oba said no ransom was paid for their release. The gunmen had initially demanded 250 million naira ($1.7 million).

Abia and Akwa Ibom are outlying states in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s restive oil heartland.

Kidnappings of foreign oil workers and prominent Nigerians are common in the main oil-producing states of Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta but in recent months attacks have been more frequent on the region’s fringes, including Akwa Ibom. (Reporting by Anamesere Igboerteonwu; writing by Randy Fabi; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Philippine troops rescue kidnapped Swiss-born trader

June 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 16 (Reuters) – Philippine soldiers and policemen rescued a Swiss-born businessman from gunmen holding him for more than two months in a remote southern province, military and local government officials said on Wednesday.

Charlie Reith, 72, was found in a makeshift hut before dawn at a coastal village in Zamboanga City when elite troops stormed the kidnappers’ lair after a tip off from some local residents, Rear Admiral Alexander Pama told reporters.

Pama said the Swiss-born and naturalised Filipino businessman was held for ransom by a group of bandits with ties to either Islamist militant Abu Sayyaf or Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels operating in the Zamboanga peninsula.

Reith was entertaining some German visitors at his beachfront home in Zamboanga City when gunmen broke up the party and dragged him to a boat on April 4. They initially demanded 50 million pesos ($1.08 million) for his release, but lowered it to 20 million pesos. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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Wadala police face heat over kidnappings

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Mumbai, May 29 — More than 250 locals surrounded Wadala police station on Friday to protest police inaction in the kidnap of two minor girls 20 days ago. Firoz A, one of the girls’ father said 20 days ago, his 14-year-old daughter and her 15-year-old friend went missing from their respective houses. “We lodged a missing complaint at Wadala police station but when the police enquired in the area and found two local boys also missing, they registered a case of kidnapping against the two 22-year-old boys,” said Firoz. “The police investigated and found the four were in Uttar Pradesh. A police team went there to arrest the boys and bring back our girls but returned empty-handed,” he said at the police station, where he was present with the locals. “It’s hard to believe a police team went to UP but couldn’t even get pictures of the boys. I’m afraid that if the police do not arrest the boys soon, they will kill my daughter and her friend, Ruchi Sharma,” he said. “If the children have eloped, the police should at least tell us,” he added. The alleged kidnappers, identified as Mumtaz (22) and Parvez (23), lived in the same area as the girls and worked as daily wage labourers. Vilas Shinde, senior police inspector at Wadala police station, said the couples had eloped and the girls had taken cash and jewellery from their houses, and said police are charging them with kidnapping because they are minors.

Asked about fresh efforts to locate the girls, Shinde said: “We’ve sent messages to police stations in the neighbouring areas of UP. In Mumbai too, we’ve sent wireless messages to all police stations, railway stations and bus stands.”

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U.S. couple taken hostage in Yemen released

May 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Two U.S. citizens, a husband and wife, taken hostage by Yemeni tribesmen were released on Tuesday a day after they were seized near the capital Sanaa, a Yemeni government official said.

“The Americans have been freed and handed over to the mediation committee,” the official told Reuters.

Armed Yemeni tribesmen had kidnapped the two U.S. tourists near Sanaa on Monday and were demanding the release of a relative jailed over a land dispute that was before the courts.

One official said pressure on the kidnappers led to the release. Authorities had set up road blocks and arrested dozens of members of the kidnappers’ kin to pressure the abductors.

Another official told Reuters that authorities had promised to look into the kidnappers’ demand.

Yemen, bordering the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, surged to the forefront of Western security concerns after the Yemen-based regional arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December.

Kidnappings of foreigners and Yemenis are common in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country, where hostages are often used by disgruntled tribesmen to press demands on authorities.

(Reporting by Mohamed Sudam; Writing by Cynthia Johnston and Firouz Sedarat; editing by Myra MacDonald)

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Saudi says frees two German children held in Yemen

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Saudi Arabian security forces have freed two German children held hostage in Yemen from an area near the border with Saudi Arabia, an interior ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

A German family of five and a Briton have been missing in Yemen since last June, held by kidnappers who the government believes have links to al Qaeda. There was no immediate word on the fate of the other hostages.

The missing Europeans were among a group of nine foreigners kidnapped in the northern region of Saada, of which three women — two Germans and a South Korean — were later found dead.

(Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Pak court dismisses plea against extradition of Taliban No.2

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, May 12 (ANI): The possible extradition of 12 Afghan Taliban militants, including Taliban No.2 Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrested by Pakistan has benn stalled after the Lahore High Court dismissed petitions regarding the extradition.

Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif on Tuesday rejected the plea of petitioner’s lawyer Tariq Asad, stating that the petitioner, Khalid Khawaja, was now dead.

He said a fresh petition needed to be filed for the case to proceed, the Daily Times reports.

Khawaja was kidnapped and later killed by the Afghan Taliban.

The kidnappers had linked his release with the withdrawal of petitions pending in the Lahore High Court regarding their arrested men.

Khawaja had challenged the possible extradition of Mullah Baradar, Mullah Abdul Salam, Maulvi Kabir, Mullah Muhammad, Ameer Muawiya, Tayyab Agha, Hakeemuddin Mehsud, Mullah Tayyab Popalzai, Abdul Qayum Zakir, Musa and Mohtasim Agha and others. (ANI)

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Kidnappers of Afghan Ambassador to Pak break silence after a year-and-a-half

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Peshawar, May 3 (ANI): The kidnappers of Afghan ambassador-designate to Pakistan Abdul Khaliq Farahi have broken their silence after almost a year-and-a-half to claim that the diplomat is alive and in their custody.

Farahi, who belongs to Farah province in Afghanistan, served as the Afghan consul general in both Quetta and Peshawar. He had been promoted as Afghanistan’s Ambassador in Islamabad but had not yet taken the charge when he was kidnapped from Peshawar’s posh Hayatabad Town on September 22, 2008.

In videotape made available on Sunday, the Afghan envoy is shown wearing trousers and a half-sleeve shirt. Till now, Pakistani intelligence officials had no clue about his whereabouts and the identity of the men holding him hostage.

Unknown militant organisation Kateeba Salahuddin Ayubi released a videotape of the Afghan envoy and claimed responsibility for his kidnapping. It was the first time that a militant group made such a claim, The News reports.

Narrating his ordeal in the videotape, the Afghan diplomat said: “I am Abdul Khaliq Farahi. Dear listeners, as you know a year-and-a-half ago, the Mujahideen arrested me from Peshawar. For the past one year and six months, I have been spending my days and nights in a very critical condition.

“I appeal to my government and the Afghan nation as well as the international community to make their last attempt to save my life. These people (Taliban) have accused me of working with the misled and the US-sponsored government of Afghanistan and the punishment of this crime is death sentence.”

After Farahi, an armed Taliban fighter standing behind him began to deliver his statement in an aggressive tone highlighting so-called successes and achievements of the Mujahideen. (ANI)

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Brit toddler’s kidnappers killed in encounter: Pak police

April 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Apr.16 (ANI): Three kidnappers, who were involved in the abduction of the five-year British kid Sahil Saeed, have been killed in an encounter, Pakistani police officials have said.

Sahil was kidnapped at gunpoint from her grandmother’s house in Jhelum last month just hours before he was to board a flight back to London.

He was released later after his family reportedly paid a hefty ransom of about 110,000 pounds.

The abductors identified as Safeer alias Safeera, Naveed alias Veda and Mudassar were killed in a police encounter near Kotla Arab Ali Khan, some 40 kilometres from Gujrat, while trying to flee, officials said.

Confirming reports about the encounter, District Police Officer (DPO) Tariq Abbas Qureshi said the Jhelum police had arrested Safeer last month, and was taking him to a village for identifying his other friends involved in the crime.

“The police party along with Safeer were intercepted by Naveed and Mudassar on their way to Sariya village. In a bid to free Safeer, Naveed and Mudassar opened fire, and in the ensuing gunfight they were killed,” The Dawn quoted Qureshi, as saying.

He, however, failed to clarify how Safeer, who was in police custody, was killed. (ANI)

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Brit toddler’s kidnappers killed in encounter: Pak police

April 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Apr.16 (ANI): Three kidnappers, who were involved in the abduction of the five-year British kid Sahil Saeed, have been killed in an encounter, Pakistani police officials have said.

Sahil was kidnapped at gunpoint from her grandmother’s house in Jhelum last month just hours before he was to board a flight back to London.

He was released later after his family reportedly paid a hefty ransom of about 110,000 pounds.

The abductors identified as Safeer alias Safeera, Naveed alias Veda and Mudassar were killed in a police encounter near Kotla Arab Ali Khan, some 40 kilometres from Gujrat, while trying to flee, officials said.

Confirming reports about the encounter, District Police Officer (DPO) Tariq Abbas Qureshi said the Jhelum police had arrested Safeer last month, and was taking him to a village for identifying his other friends involved in the crime.

“The police party along with Safeer were intercepted by Naveed and Mudassar on their way to Sariya village. In a bid to free Safeer, Naveed and Mudassar opened fire, and in the ensuing gunfight they were killed,” The Dawn quoted Qureshi, as saying.

He, however, failed to clarify how Safeer, who was in police custody, was killed. (ANI)

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Nigerian doctors end strike after colleague freed

April 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, April 11 (Reuters) – Dozens of doctors at a leading hospital in Nigeria’s southern Edo state ended a four-day strike and returned to work on Saturday after a colleague was freed by kidnappers, the group’s spokesman said.

More than 50 doctors from the main teaching hospital in Benin went on strike on Wednesday after unidentified gunmen abducted the chief medical doctor on his way home from work.

The doctors had demanded that authorities find the captors and bolster security in the area.

“The professor has regained freedom and is feeling well. With his release, we have called off the strike and since resumed work,” said Dr. Osahon Enabulele, state chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association.

Kidnappings and other violent crimes are increasingly common, especially in the oil-producing Niger Delta. Most hostages are released unharmed after a ransom is paid.

It was not clear whether a ransom was paid for the doctor’s release.

The four-day strike had forced the hospital to turn away new patients because nurses and interns were too overwhelmed in the doctors’ absence. (Reporting by Austin Ekeinde; Writing by Randy Fabi; Editing by Giles Elgood) (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ ) (For Interactive factbox on Nigeria please click here)

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Japan journalist kidnapped in northern Afghanistan

April 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – A Japanese journalist has been kidnapped in Afghanistan, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said Friday, after media reports saying the freelancer had gone missing in the northern city of Kunduz.

Kosuke Tsuneoka, a 40-year-old freelance journalist who is a Muslim, has been in Afghanistan since mid-March to cover the Taliban, Japanese media reported. It was unclear who the kidnappers were.

“I am aware that he has been kidnapped,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano told a news conference, but refused to comment on details citing humanitarian concerns.

Kunduz is a strategically located city near the northern border with Tajikistan. The region is a part of a key NATO supply line and has been a main conflict front in recent years after militants staged a fierce bid to reclaim their former stronghold.

Japan, a major donor to Afghanistan, has some 120 citizens in the war-torn country and said last year it would give Kabul up to $5 billion in new aid. In 2008, a Japanese aid worker was killed in eastern Afghanistan after being kidnapped.

(Reporting by Yoko Nishikawa and Yoko Kubota; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Japan journalist kidnapped in northern Afghanistan

April 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

TOKYO, April 2 (Reuters) – A Japanese journalist has been kidnapped in Afghanistan, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said on Friday, after media reports saying the freelancer had gone missing in the northern city of Kunduz.

Kosuke Tsuneoka, a 40-year-old freelance journalist who is a Muslim, has been in Afghanistan since mid-March to cover the Taliban, Japanese media reported. It was unclear who the kidnappers were.

“I am aware that he has been kidnapped,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano told a news conference, but refused to comment on details citing humanitarian concerns.

Kunduz is a strategically located city near the northern border with Tajikistan. The region is a part of a key NATO supply line and has been a main conflict front in recent years after militants staged a fierce bid to reclaim their former stronghold.

Japan, a major donor to Afghanistan, has some 120 citizens in the war-torn country and said last year it would give Kabul up to $5 billion in new aid. In 2008, a Japanese aid worker was killed in eastern Afghanistan after being kidnapped. (Reporting by Yoko Nishikawa and Yoko Kubota; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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British Foreign Office did not authorise Sahil’s ransom for release from abductors in Pak

March 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar.30 (ANI): The British Government has said that foreign office officials were neither consulted nor they did authorise the ransom paid by the family of five year old Sahil Saeed, who was kidnapped earlier this month from his grandmother’s house in Pakistan’s Punjab province’s Jhelum.

Sahil’s family had reportedly paid 110,000 pounds as ransom to the abductors to secure his safe release. The money was paid in Paris, hours after which the toddler was found abandoned by the kidnappers a few miles away from his ancestral house in Jhelum.

British foreign office minister Baroness Kinnock clarified that the government’s policy of ‘not making or facilitating substantive concessions to hostage-takers, including the payment of ransoms, is long standing and clear.’

“We believe that making such concessions rewards hostage-taking and encourages future kidnaps. Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials were neither consulted about nor authorised payment of a ransom to secure the release of Sahil Saeed in Pakistan,” Kinnock said while replying to a question raised by Liberal Democrat Lord Dykes.

She said officials would continue to offer ‘consular assistance’ to the families of those taken by kidnappers, The Mirror reports.

Earlier, unconfirmed reports in the Manchester Evening News had suggested that the Greater Manchester Police helped ‘facilitate’ the ransom payment, but the force refused to confirm or deny the claim.

Five persons were detained in Spain and France in connection with the abduction. Several arrests were also made in Pakistan in connection with the much reported kidnapping. (ANI)

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Brit kid’s kidnappers paraded before media, say they didn’t have prior plans of abduction

March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Mar.26 (ANI): The Pakistan police has claimed arresting two kidnappers who were involved in the abduction of a five-year-old British boy, Sahil Saeed, earlier this month.

Parading the two hooded and shackled kidnappers before the media, officials said they were on the look out for nabbing the other two suspects.

Local television footage showed the two men with covered faces, surrounded by police officers.

“We had no prior planning to kidnap this boy,” one of the suspects was heard saying.

Regional police chief, Aslam Tarin told media persons during a press conference that the arrested men were part of an international gang.

“We have arrested two members of this international gang,” The Dawn quoted Tarin, as saying.

Tarin said the men had raided Sahil’s grandmother’s house in Jhelum with the intention of robbing it, and had then kidnapped the toddler.

“They couldn’t find much, so they decided to take the boy and make a demand for ransom,” Tarin said.

“One is Safeer from Lala Musa and other is Imran from Rawalpindi, who are already wanted in various crimes of kidnapping for ransom and murders after kidnapping,” he added.

Tarin, however, did not disclose when the men were arrested.

Sahil was released after 13 days when his father Raja Saeed reportedly handed over a 110,000 pound ransom in Paris.

A Pakistani man and a Romanian woman were among five people arrested by police in France and Spain last week in connection with the kidnapping case. (ANI)

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Kidnapped boy touches down in England

March 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A British boy kidnapped in Pakistan two weeks ago has been reunited with his family.

Five-year-old Sahil Saeed has returned to Britain after being held captive for 13 days.

A ransom of $182,000 was paid, and the boy was found wandering in a field near where he was kidnapped.

The boy has been reunited with his father; the first pictures showed him playing football on the lawn of the British High Commission in Islamabad.

He has since landed in Manchester to return home with his mother.

The hunt for the kidnappers was an international one; two men and a woman have faced court in Spain, and another two people were arrested in Paris.

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Arrests over kidnapped boy stretch to Europe

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Spain says a ransom had been paid to secure the release of a five-year-old British boy kidnapped in Pakistan.

Authorities detained three people in Spain and two in France, Spain’s interior ministry said in a statement, which came a day after the boy was recovered in good condition after being left in a field in Pakistan.

Two of those arrested in Tarragona, in north-east Spain, are suspected of having gone to Paris to seek the ransom for the boy.

Authorities arrested the man and the woman “once the little boy’s release was confirmed,” it said.

Two others suspected of collaborating with them were arrested in Paris, according to the statement.

The online edition of regional daily Diari de Tarragona said two Pakistani men and a Romanian woman were detained at their home in the town of Constanti, near Tarragona.

Spanish police found a large quantity of money at the suspects’ flat, it reported.

Police in Pakistan said the kidnappers had dropped off the child in a field on Tuesday, allowing officers to recover him, but no arrests were made.

Doctors confirmed the boy was in good condition, saying he was under police protection and accompanied by British officials.

Sahil Saeed was taken from his grandmother’s house in the town of Jhelum, about 100 kilometres south of Islamabad, in the early hours of March 4 while preparing to leave with his Pakistani father to fly back to Britain.

The boy’s father had said the kidnappers stormed the house armed with guns and grenades, subjecting the family to a six-hour ordeal while he and his son were preparing to take a taxi to the airport and fly home.

Relatives said the boy was taken by robbers who stole jewellery and cash and demanded a $US120,000 ransom.

Kidnappings of Westerners are rare in Pakistan but abductions of locals are common.

They are often related to family quarrels, love affairs, property disputes or simple quests for money – particularly for the wealthier victims – by criminal gangs, some of whom are connected to Islamist militant networks.

- AFP

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British boy kidnapped in Pakistan freed unharmed

March 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – A British boy kidnapped 12 days ago while on vacation in Pakistan was freed unharmed by his abductors on Tuesday, police said, ending a high-profile ordeal.

World

“We are very happy. Thank God he is safe and sound,” said Raja Basharat, the grand-uncle of five-year-old Sahil Saeed.

Pakistan will hand the boy over to the British embassy, Aslam Tarin, regional police chief, told a news conference.

Sweets were handed out at the home of the boy’s relatives in the town of Jhelum after they received a call from the kidnappers that he had been left in the nearby garrison town of Kharian.

Tarin said Sahil was “playing with the police.”

Gunmen held several of Sahil’s family members at gunpoint for several hours and took away 150,000 rupees ($1,750) and some gold during the kidnapping, and later demanded a 10 million rupee ($118,000) ransom.

Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told Reuters an “international gang of kidnappers” was responsible.

“We are trying to bust this gang with the help of other countries,” he said, without elaborating.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik had said he suspected some relatives were involved in the abduction, which made big news in the British and Pakistani media.

But Tarin said: “We have found no evidence of involvement of his father or any of his family members in it (the crime).” The father has returned to the United Kingdom, he added.

“It is fantastic news which brings an end to the traumatic ordeal faced by Sahil and his family,” the British High Commissioner in Islamabad, Adam Thomson, said in a statement.

“I would like to praise the high-level of cooperation between U.K. and Pakistani authorities and in particular, I would like to thank the Jhelum police for their role in bringing about the safe return of Sahil.”

Kidnapping is a major problem in Pakistan and many of the crimes go unreported. Local media said on Tuesday that the dead body of a two-year-old Pakistani girl who was kidnapped for ransom was found near the northwestern city of Peshawar.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider and Zeeshan Haider in ISLAMABAD; Writing by Michael Georgy)

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Kidnapped Brit toddler recovered in Pak

March 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Mar.16 (ANI): Pakistani police officials have claimed that the five-year old British child, Sahil Saeed, who was kidnapped from his grandmother’s house in Punjab’s Jhelum district two weeks ago, has been safely recovered.

Sahil’s grandfather, Raja Basharat, also confirmed his recovery, saying that he has been handed over to the Jhelum town administration.

“He is recovered and safe,” said Basharat.

Basharat also denied any ransom being paid by the family members for Sahil’s release, The News reports.

Meanwhile, the British High Commission has also confirmed Sahil’s recovery, who was abandoned by his kidnappers near a school in Danga village.

Sahil was abducted from his grandmother’s house in Jhelum on March 3, as he was about to leave along with his father to catch a flight back to London.

The kidnappers had demanded 100,000 pounds as ransom.

It is believed that some family members were involved in kidnapping, but the truth is yet to be revealed. (ANI)

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Kidnapped foreign aid workers freed in Haiti

March 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Two foreign aid workers with Doctors Without Borders in quake-hit Haiti were kidnapped and held for nearly a week before being freed early on Thursday, the international medical charity said.

“Two of my colleagues, two women, were abducted last Friday. They were released early this morning … they are in good health and in good shape,” said Michel Peremans, spokesman in Haiti for Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

Citing privacy considerations, he declined to give details of their identities or nationalities or of the circumstances of the kidnapping, which occurred in the capital Port-au-Prince.

“It is not our policy to pay any ransoms,” Mr Peremans said. He declined to say whether a ransom had been asked for in this case, or who the kidnappers were.

The incident was the first known kidnapping of foreign nationals in Haiti since the catastrophic earthquake on January 12 that wrecked Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns.

It was expected to raise security concerns among the thousands of foreign aid workers and soldiers who have flocked to Haiti since the quake in a huge international relief operation, as well as journalists.

There were fears that the kidnapping could lead to copycat abductions.

Haiti’s president has said up to 300,000 people may have been killed by the earthquake, and more than a million people were left homeless, most of them poor.

Although the small Caribbean nation has a bloody history of political instability and social unrest, United Nations and US military commanders involved in the post-quake aid operation say security has remained generally stable.

Nevertheless, significant looting followed the quake and aid groups reported some cases in which gunmen had attempted to hold up food convoys, which travel with military escorts.

Several thousand convicted prisoners have escaped from quake-damaged jails, and most of them are still at large.

Mr Peremans said Doctors Without Borders would review its operating procedures in Haiti following the kidnapping, but was committed to continuing to help the country’s quake survivors recover from the disaster.

-Reuters

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UK-born child’s abduction has tarnished Pak image: Malik

March 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Mar 8(ANI): Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said the abduction of five-year-old UK-born Sahil Saeed has tarnished the image of the country and joint investigations were underway for the immediate recovery of the boy.

Some unknown persons had kidnapped Sahil on last Wednesday after terrorising his family at a time when his father Raja Naqash Saeed was waiting for a taxi to leave for airport.

The boy has not been recovered despite tall claims of the federal and provincial governments regarding his early recovery.

Addressing the media after meeting the parents of the abducted child at his house in Jhelum, Malik said: “The action of the abductors had created a bad image of the country before those Pakistani who are living abroad. The kidnappers will be dealt with an iron hand.”

He said that provincial government was thoroughly investigating into the case with all possible angles and a possible breakthrough was expected in the next couple of days.

Malik also highlighted his satisfaction over the investigations being done by police, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other agencies.

“The members of the family of the child have shared a very useful information with the investigators and it will prove helpful in his recovery,” he said.

The Minister further said the involvement of a close family member of the child in the incident could not be ruled out and the police were also looking the matter with reference to this angle. (ANI)

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