New Delhi: More than five months after he was allegedly kidnapped from Mingora town in Pakistan’s Swat region, a Sikh boy has been recovered from his captors in Lahore. While the boy’s father had registered a complaint against his brothers for the “kidnapping”, the Mingora police said they recovered the boy from a “fake pir” Monday, Dawn reported.
The report said the alleged captors have been arrested.
According to the police, Mingora resident Karam Chund had lodged a complaint against his brothers Janam Raj and Prem Chand, and nephew Jatindar Kumar, accusing them of kidnapping his son Taran Kumar.
The police, however, said they found the accused to be innocent during their probe, and that further investigation helped them trace the “real culprit”.
Quoting DSP (City) Badshah Hazrat, the Dawn report said Taran Kumar was recovered from Taj Mohammad, a “fake pir” operating in Lahore’s Kedam area.
According to the police, the ‘pir’ first befriended the Sikh family and then took Taran to Lahore, and kept him captive there for ransom.
“No one knew about the whereabouts of Taran Kumar for more than five months. The kidnappers took around Rs5.5 million from his father,” DSP Hazrat was quoted as saying.
He said their investigation led them to the real culprit and his accomplice, who is his sister-in-law, and they were taken into custody.
He said Taj Mohammad had falsely told the boy’s family that he possessed spiritual powers and could tell future events.
The DSP said further investigations and interrogation of the accused are on.