Confusion over abducted UK boy

2010-03-11 12:36

London - The whereabouts of a British boy kidnapped from his family's home in Pakistan was unclear on Thursday, with conflicting reports about whether he has been found and diplomats scrambling for confirmation.

Pakistan's High Commissioner to London, Wajid Hasan, first told The Associated Press that he had information from Islamabad that 5-year-old Sahil Saeed had been found. But within half an hour Hasan backtracked, saying he wasn't so sure.

"Now I've come to know that there's confusion about it so I don't want to make further comments," he told the AP. In comments to BBC television at around the same time, he said that "I think that if he has not been found he is about to be found".

Officials say Sahil Saeed was snatched from his grandmother's house in Pakistan's Jehlum city last week after robbers held the family at gunpoint for several hours.

Sahil and his father, from Oldham in Greater Manchester, were on holiday in Pakistan.

No confirmation

Early on Thursday Sky News television, citing several Pakistani officials, said the boy had been found.

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.

Sahil's grandfather Raja Mohammed Basharat told the AP he had no news one way or the other.

"The government has not given any information to us about the recovery of Sahil," he said.

Basharat said he had also lost contact with his son Raja Naqqash Saeed - and British media reports said he had left for the UK.

"I don't know where is my son, as I have no contact with him for the past four days," he said. It was not clear why Saeed would have left the country without his son.

Pakistani officials - including Hasan - have suggested that the kidnapping was an "inside job" possibly involving members of the boy's family.

- AP