Joy as freed kidnap boy flies home (From Western Telegraph)

Joy as freed kidnap boy flies home

9:56pm Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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Relatives of kidnapped Sahil Saeed have said they are "ecstatic" and "over the moon" following his safe return to the UK.

The exhausted youngster hid his face from waiting media as he was held in his mother Akila Naqqash's arms outside the family home in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

A home-made banner saying "Welcome Sahil" hung from windows outside the terraced house, with steel barriers surrounding the property to keep back dozens of reporters, photographers and TV crews.

It was the end of a two-week ordeal for the five-year-old who was snatched by gunmen during a holiday in Pakistan with his father, Raja Naqqash Saeed, and other relatives.

On Thursday night his aunt, Naila Wasseem, and great-uncle, Mushtaq Raja, said the family was "overjoyed".

His aunt said: "We are ecstatic, everybody is over the moon. Everybody, for 13 days, all we have done is non-stop praying. Now the mood's totally changed. I think today is going to be low-key, maybe the next few days we will have a party.

His great-uncle said: "They (Sahil's parents) wanted to cry - when you are so happy, you had lost your son, then he appears before your eyes - you can't imagine how emotional it is. The boy is very tired."

The kidnappers struck on March 4 in Jhelum in the Punjab region of Pakistan. An international police operation was launched and Mr Saeed returned to Europe, going to Paris where he handed over a £110,000 ransom to secure his son's release.

Three people - two Pakistani men and a Romanian woman - were arrested in Spain after police followed two of them from the French capital. All three appeared in a Spanish court where they were remanded in custody charged with kidnapping a minor.

A decision will be made "in the coming days" over which country's jurisdiction the investigation will proceed under, said a Spanish court official.