Pakistan kidnap ordeal father returns to UK

The father of a five-year-old British boy held captive in Pakistan has returned to the UK, sources said yesterday.

Sahil Saeed, from Oldham in Greater Manchester, was grabbed by gun and grenade-wielding raiders from his grandmother's house last Thursday.

His father, Raja Naqqash Saeed, was with him on the trip and had remained in the country amid efforts to rescue Sahil.

Police appeared to be no closer to finding Sahil as Mr Saeed arrived back in Britain.

But the BBC reported that police in Pakistan had wanted Mr Saeed to stay in the country as a witness.

The raiders struck as Sahil and his father were preparing to fly home, apparently subjecting the family to a six-hour ordeal after breaking into the house in Jhelum.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We continue to provide consular assistance to the family."

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called Sahil's father at the weekend to assure him the family had the full support of his government.

On Sunday, the boy's mother, Akila Naqqash, made a direct appeal to the abductors from the family home in Oldham to end their ordeal and let her son go.