‘British gang helped in five-year-old’s kidnapping’

A British gang was involved in the kidnapping of five-year-old Sahil Saeed, it was claimed today.

Investigators believe the schoolboy's abductors in Pakistan and Spain were not acting alone. It is believed evidence of a British connection was uncovered during the monitoring of phone calls made by those arrested for their alleged part in the plot.

The examination of mobile phones found in both Spain and Pakistan indicated more than a dozen calls were made by the kidnappers to two numbers in Britain.

The development came as Sahil enjoyed his first morning back at home with his family in Oldham, Greater Manchester. Sahil, who spent 13 days in captivity, was reunited with his mother Akila Naqqash, 31, after flying home from Islamabad with his father Raja Naqqash Saeed, 28.

Yesterday two Pakistanis, Mouhamed Sageiz, 33, and Mouhamed Zahed Salem, 29, and Romanian Monica Neruja, 24, were remanded in custody by a court in Tarragona, near Barcelona for their alleged role in the kidnapping.

Four suspects are being held in Pakistan, while two men arrested in Paris were released yesterday. Officials revealed that at least two of those arrested knew Sahil's family, and that one of those held in Spain came from the Pakistani area of Jhelum where his grandparents live and from where he was taken at gunpoint on 3 March.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the Pakistani High Commissioner in London, said: "The people that have been arrested in Pakistan, they must have known the family well. They have had some kind of grudge against them."

Sahil was freed by his abductors after his family paid a £110,000 ransom.

He was released at a school, 13 miles from Jhelum, before being found wandering in a field in the town of Dinga, in the Gujrat district on Tuesday.

During his captivity, he was cared for by a woman and was allowed to ride a horse, given a bicycle and toy gun and taken for a ride in a donkey-drawn cart. Officials also believe he may have been sedated for some of the time.