9:30am Tuesday 16th March 2010
The family of the five-year-old boy from Oldham kidnapped by gunmen in Pakistan are “overjoyed” after he was found safe and well.
Sahil Saeed was snatched from a house in the Punjab region of the country on March 4 after robbers held his relatives hostage at gunpoint.
Sahil’s mother, Akila Naqqash, who had begged for his release, has now spoken to her son and is waiting for him to return to his home in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
”They are overjoyed,” said a police liaison officer at the family home.
”For 12 or 13 days, waiting, building hopes up and then hopes going down. She is overjoyed. It is really happy, just really happy.
”They were made aware he had been found safe and well. Mother has spoken on the telephone and spoke to him for some time, a private conversation. He is safe and well. But the family do not want to say anything, they want to wait until he comes back.”
On Tuesday morning, family members went in and out of the terraced house with broad smiles of relief but refused to comment to reporters and TV crews outside.
Sahil is understood to still be in Pakistan and his return is being organised by the British High Commission in Islamabad. A spokesman confirmed that the boy had been located safe and well.
Adam Thomson, the British High Commissioner in Islamabad, said: “This is fantastic news. It brings to an end the traumatic ordeal faced by Sahil Saeed’s family.
”I would like to praise the high level of co-operation between the UK 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.”
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