Confusion surrounds recovery of Brit toddler kidnapped in Pak

ISLAMABAD - Confusion still persists over the recovery of five-year old British boy Sahil Saeed, who was kidnapped from his grandmother’s house in Punjab’s Jhelum last week, with diplomats and officials failing to confirm the news regarding Saeed’s whereabouts.

On Thursday, media reports said that Saeed has been found and is returning to London with his father and Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Britain Wajid Hasan also confirmed the news only to backtrack later.

“Now I’ve come to know that there’s confusion about it so I don’t want to make further comments,” Hasan told a foreign news agency minutes after he confirmed the recovery of the British toddler.

British diplomats in Pakistan and London said they were urgently checking the reports, but police in Jehlum said they could not confirm he had been located.

Earlier, Pakistan’s Law Minister Babar Awan had revealed that Sahil has been found.

Sky News quoted Awan as saying that toddler was found yesterday, but news of his freedom had been kept quiet for safety reasons.

Sahil was taken by gunmen from his grandmother’s house in Jhelum last Wednesday after a gang reportedly tortured his family for up to six hours.

The young boy and his father were preparing to fly back to Britain and booked a taxi to take them to the airport before the gunmen struck. Sahil’s mother had stayed at home in Oldham.

Meanwhile, Sahil’s father Raja Naqqash Saeed was reported to have returned home to Britain on Wednesday after initially staying in Pakistan amid efforts to rescue the schoolboy. (ANI)