Freed Brit toddler reunites with family in London

LONDON - Five-year-old British kid, Sahil Saeed, who was kidnapped and freed two weeks later in Pakistan’s Punjab province’s Jhelum, has returned to his family home in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

Sahil, who was freed after his family reportedly paid a ransom of 110,000 pounds, reached London along with his father Raja Saeed.

Sahil was snatched at gunpoint during a robbery at his grandmother’s house in Jhelum earlier this month.

Raja thanked both Pakistani and British officials for their support and ‘untiring’ efforts to ensure his son’s safe return.

“I am completely overjoyed that I have been reunited with my son after such a long ordeal. Sahil is doing well, is in good spirits, and can’t wait to return to the UK to see his mum, his family, and join his friends back at school,” he said after meeting his son at the home of the British High Commissioner in Islamabad on Thursday.

The kidnapping case has witnessed several twists and turns with media reports suggesting the involvement of some family members in the abduction.

Unconfirmed reports in the Manchester Evening News have suggested Greater Manchester Police helped ‘facilitate’ the ransom payment, but the force refused to confirm or deny the claim, the BBC said.

Earlier, five persons were detained in Spain and France in connection with the abduction.

Spanish officers said police in Paris watched as people took the money handed over by Sahil’s 28-year-old father and divided it into a bag and a trolley. French police then followed them to the border with Spain and nabbed the suspects during a raid in Tarragona, Catalonia.

The ransom money, 110,000 pounds in cash, a computer and some mobile phones, used to contact Sahil’s father in Pakistan to demand the ransom, were also recovered during the raid. (ANI)