British boy kidnapped in Pakistan freed unharmed

Five-year-old Sahil Saeed's Pakistan National Identity Card (NIC) photograph. The British boy who was kidnapped in Pakistan earlier this month has been released, a relative said on March 16.

JHELUM, Pakistan (Reuters) - A British boy kidnapped nearly two weeks ago while on vacation in Pakistan was freed unharmed by his abductors on Tuesday after a ransom was paid, officials said, ending a high-profile ordeal.

Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told Reuters an "international gang of kidnappers" was responsible for the abduction of the boy, who is from the English town of Oldham.

Pakistan had received information that European countries have identified suspects, and Pakistanis have been arrested here, he said, adding that a ransom was paid in a European country.

"I've talked to him on the phone, my little boy ... That has reassured me that he is safe and he has been released from the kidnappers," five-year-old Sahil Saeed's mother, Akila, told reporters in Britain.

"He is going on and on and on about his toys and his sisters and everything like this, just as a normal little boy," she said.

"It was amazing. At first we thought it wasn't true as we have had a couple of false reports that he'd been found last week. But then we had phone calls from everywhere saying, yes, it is true."

Pakistan will hand Sahil over to the British embassy, Aslam Tarin, regional police chief, told a news conference earlier.

Sweets were handed out at the home of the boy's relatives in the town of Jhelum after they received a call from the kidnappers that he had been left in the nearby garrison town of Kharian.

Tarin said Sahil was "playing with the police".

Gunmen held Sahil's relatives at gunpoint for hours and took away 150,000 rupees ($1,750) and some gold during the kidnapping, and later demanded a 10 million rupee ($118,000) ransom.

"It is fantastic news which brings an end to the traumatic ordeal faced by Sahil and his family," the British High Commissioner in Islamabad, Adam Thomson, said in a statement.

"It's obviously very, very good news that he's finally in the care of his family and the High Commission. I think that every parent in Britain will be delighted by the news and we need to get him home as soon as possible," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in Beijing.

"The credit is really due to the Pakistani authorities."

Kidnapping is a major problem in Pakistan and many of the crimes go unreported. Local media said on Tuesday that the dead body of a two-year-old Pakistani girl who was kidnapped for ransom was found near the northwestern city of Peshawar.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider and Zeeshan Haider in ISLAMABAD, London and China bureau; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Sugita Katyal)