“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. Continue reading »