“They took my son. They were fully loaded with guns and hand grenades. All Pakistan police know about this, and the British Council”. It was that quote from the UK Press Association (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hi4ksQXtPVQRbBjRKRJs8poAhyxA) that first awakened me to this story. The same quote also appeared online in the Sheffield Telegraph, The Independent and the BBC. It was obviously a misunderstanding of the father’s quote: he meant the British Consul. (The British Consul is responsible for heping British citizens abroad and, in my experience, often does some heroic deeds on their behalf. The British Council is the UK’s cultural relations organisation, for which I work. Confusing, but we’ve had the name long enough for it to be a recognisable world brand.)
What sort of terrorist or criminal is callous enough to kidnap a 5-year old child, I wonder? Kidnaps are usually carried out to order and are carefully-planned in advance. The victim needs to be captured with the minimum fuss and handed on to the client as quickly as possible, perhaps via a number of intermediaries to minimise the risk of being traced. This would not appear to be the case here. The family were abused and robbed at gunpoint before the criminals fled with the child. They have since issued a ransom demand of £100,000.
The international press attention is probably not helping the police and security services to do their job. Rehman Malik, Minister of the Interior has waded in with comments worthy of a politician and sacked four police officers because the police did not respond fast enough to the Rescue 15 (emergency) call. All this attention does no good. Kidnappers work from two general motives – money or the promotion of a cause. Press attention has the impact of either raising the value of the victim or drawing attention to the cause. It has benefits as well, forcing the police to pursue the rescue of the victim with some vigourin the full glare of the international media. The natural revulsion that this case causes helps to ensure that it is an embarrassment that is taken seriously by the security services. Let’s pray that it doesn’t contribute to a very sad ending for young Saahil and his family.
- David
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