News - Afghanistan

Police have detained five men in relation to the kidnapping of a four-year-old boy north of Kabul a month ago, local officials said Saturday.

The group allegedly took the boy while the family were at a wedding party in the capital of Parwan province Charikar, police said.

They were arrested on Thursday while they were discussing the ransom with the boy's family in the Shakar Dera district of Kabul.

When the police arrived in the area, the men opened fire and a shootout ensued as the police responded, the chief of Kabul criminal investigation department Gen. Mohammad Zahir said.

Two of the group were wounded including their leader Abdul Fatah in the exchange of fire. The boy has been returned safely to his family, he said.

"The kidnappers are professional criminals who were led by Abdul Fatah. They kidnapped a four-year-old boy from a wedding party in Charikar," he said.

However, the kidnappers had confessed their crimes and said that "they will not repeat again", he added.

The detained men were presented at a press conference in Kabul.

"I was monitoring the area during the kidnapping to ensure the police did not arrive. Mirwais kidnapped the kid from the house and come out while the [wedding] party was continuing and gave him to Hamid. Hamid then carried him to a different place," one of the men Sadiq said.

Another of the alleged kidnappers Najibullah said: "I called many times to the family [of the boy] and I asked them to pay thousands of dollars. Recently they were ready to pay $16,000."

The boy's family has called on the justice organs to deliver the harshest of penalties.

"The government should hang them in public so that no one would repeat such a thing," the father Haji Mohammad Kabir father said.

Zahir said that police have been ordered to remain alert and capture those who are doing kidnappings.