Three held over Sahil Saeed ransom demand

Spanish police have arrested two Pakistani men and a Romanian woman in connection with a ransom demanded for kidnapped British boy Sahil Saeed. Sahil, five, from Oldham, was taken from his grandmother's home in Pakistan on 3 March, then freed 13 days later. The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Madrid said officers in Tarragona, Catalonia, had confirmed the arrests, but said the investigation was still open. He was taken when robbers broke into the house while he and his father Raja Saeed were on holiday visiting relatives in Jhelum, in the Punjab region. Mr Saeed returned to the UK last week against the wishes of Pakistan's police.

Family members were said to have been beaten by the intruders during a six-hour ordeal, which ended with the robbers looting the house and fleeing with the boy. The gang had apparently demanded a £100,000 ransom for Sahil's return, but his family had said there was "no way" they could afford any such payment. Kidnapping has become truly an international enterprise, and the tactics used by one group that seem to work or innovative are used by others soon after.

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Kidnapped British boy found safe in Pakistan

The five-year-old British boy kidnapped while on holiday in Pakistan nearly two weeks ago was today found wandering in a field after being released alone at 9am, police said. Sahil Saeed, of Oldham, Greater Manchester, was snatched from a house in the Punjab region of the country on 4 March, after robbers held his family hostage at gunpoint.

The assistant chief constable of Greater Manchester police, Dave Thompson, said Sahil was released by his hostages in Kharian, about 25 miles (40km) from Jhelum, the town in Punjab where he was kidnapped."It's with some delight and considerable relief that Sahil Saeed, from Oldham, was released at 4.10am GMT this morning in Kharian city in Pakistan by his hostage takers," Thompson said.

"The release was made as a result of a phone call made to his family. He was released nearby to a school, alone, wandered into a local field and was found by some local residents who looked after him until such time his family found him with the police. "At this time, I believe he is well, considering the terrible ordeal he would have been through."

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