A five-year-old British boy whose 12-day kidnap ordeal in Pakistan sparked an international police operation to recover a ransom payment in Europe arrived home yesterday.
Sahil Saeed was brought out onto the doorstep of his Oldham, northwest England, home by his mother Alila Naqqash to applause from well-wishers, shortly after his father brought him back from Islamabad.
Looking tired, Sahil rubbed his eyes and refused to raise his head from his father's shoulder.
His father Raja Naqqash Saeed had flown back with the boy from Pakistan hours earlier.
Sahil was smiling and in high spirits as he boarded the flight for a reunion with his mother, who had promised a "big party" on his return.
Before he left, Sahil kicked a football around the lawn of the British High Commissioner's residence in Islamabad and was cuddled by his relieved father, who had flown out earlier in the day to collect him, video footage showed.
The boy's release on Tuesday followed the payment by his uncle of a £110,000-pound ransom in Paris, which has since been largely recovered in a police operation that sparked five arrests.
"I am completely overjoyed that I have been reunited with my son after such a long ordeal," the father said in a statement released by the High Commission.
"Sahil is doing well, is in good spirits and can't wait to return to the UK to see his mum, his family and join his friends back at school," he added, thanking British and Pakistani authorities for assisting in his son's return.
The father, son and an uncle took off for Manchester aboard Pakistan International Airlines flight 701 at 3.15 p.m. (1015 GMT), an official said, and arrived in Britain at about 6.30 p.m. (1830 GMT).
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said everyone was "very, very happy that this potentially tragic story is ending in Sahil coming back to our country".
"I think we have got to recognise the exceptional role played by Greater Manchester Police and thank the Pakistan government," he added from Oldham.
Sahil was snatched at gunpoint from his grandmother's house in the town of Jhelum, about 100 kilometres south of Islamabad, in the early hours of March 4 at the end of a family holiday.
Pakistani authorities, helped by British officials, launched a hunt for the boy, and 12 days later Sahil was recovered safe in a field not far from Jhelum as the focus of the investigation switched to France and Spain.
A Pakistani man and a Romanian woman, both awaiting trial on murder charges, were among five people arrested by police on Tuesday.
The couple travelled from the northeastern Spanish town of Con-stanti, which has a large Pakistani community, to Paris to collect the ransom. They were arrested on their return to Spain.