London, March 16: A mother’s agony ended today when her son, Sahil Saeed, a five-year-old British Pakistani boy who was abducted on March 4 from his grandmother’s home in Jhelum in the Punjab, was found today alive and well in the village of Dinga barely 20 miles away.

From her home in Odlham, Greater Manchester, Sahil’s mother, Akila Naqqash, 31, who had appealed to the unknown kidnappers not to harm her son, said after speaking to Sahil: “We are overjoyed. I am over the moon. I couldn’t believe it. Feel like this is all a dream and it isn’t true. He was going on and on and on about his toys — just like a normal little boy. Never again will I be going back to Pakistan.”

Greater Manchester Police assistant chief constable Dave Thompson said the boy was found wandering alone in a field. “This still remains a very active criminal investigation and Greater Manchester Police and the Pakistani authorities are still determined to bring people to justice and that will be a high priority in the coming hours, days and weeks.”

“They are overjoyed,” said a police liaison officer at the family home. “For 12 or 13 days, waiting, building hopes up and then hopes going down. She is overjoyed. It is really happy, just really happy. They were made aware he had been found safe and well. Mother has spoken on the telephone and spoke to him for some time, a private conversation. He is safe and well. But the family do not want to say anything, they want to wait until he comes back.”

Once before it was rumoured the boy had been found but the report proved false. But today the release was confirmed by two sources.

Adam Thomson, the British High Commissioner in Islamabad, which is organising Sahil’s return passage, said: “This is fantastic news. It brings to an end the traumatic ordeal faced by Sahil Saeed’s family. I would like to praise the high level of co-operation between the UK and Pakistani authorities and in particular I would like to thank the Jhelum police for their role in bringing about the safe return of Sahil.”

Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Senator Rehman Malik, told the Associated Press of Pakistan that the release had been made possible by “the joint efforts of Jhelum police and other law enforcing agencies”.

He said there was “extreme pressure on the kidnappers and phones used in the boy’s abduction had been traced”.

Right from the start, there were suggestions that the boy’s family were somehow implicated in his abduction. For one thing, the Pakistan authorities were keen to demonstrate that kidnapping is not such a big problem in Pakistan and that this was a one off crime.

Sahil had gone to Pakistan with his 28-year-old father, Raja Naqqash Saeed. He was kidnapped by a group of gunmen who arrived by taxi at 11pm just as father and son were setting off for the airport to fly back to Britain. The family were held hostage for six hours, roughed up and relieved of jewellery and cash – and also the boy. In a phone call later made from a Spanish mobile, a ransom was sought.

As the news broke in Britain, the Pakistani High Commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, said immediately on television: “There’s a possibility of someone in the family having some sort of knowledge.”

Leaks started appearing in the British press of splits between Sahil’s parents. Raja had been in Britain for seven years and was unemployed. He was related to Akila who had been married before. The couple also have two daughters, Anisha, four, and Hafsah, 21 months, but are said to have lived apart for a year. Raja had gone to Pakistan, taking his wife’s passport with him so that she could not follow him. She was alleged to have contacted the immigration authorities earlier and warned them not to give her husband a British passport. Questions were also asked why the kidnappers, according to Raja, had demanded a ransom in pound sterling – Pound100,000 – and not in local currency.

The taxi driver was quickly picked up plus suspects “close to the kidnapping” and it is assumed they were encouraged to talk by the Pakistani police using traditional interrogation methods. But the boy eluded them.

Though implicated by innuendo, on television Raja did looked distraught, like any father who had lost his son. The prime minister of Pakistan, Yousuf Raza Gilani, assured Raja his government was making an all-out effort to rescue Sahil. But without warning, Raja caught a flight and flew back to Manchester on March 4 where he was met by police. They said Raja was not a suspect but helping them with their inquiries. Raja was conspicuous by his absence from his marital home. In fact, Akila’s relatives said they had no idea where Raja was. There was no explanation why a father should come back to England without his son. Back in Pakistan, police said they would have preferred Raja to have stayed as he was a valuable witness.

Today, when announcing Sahil’s release, Interior Minister Malik, who had visited Raja when the boy was kidnapped, commented: “I had already said that the kidnappers might be from family or close relatives of the child.”

In Jhelum today, agencies reported that Muhammad Aslam Tareen, the detective leading the investigation, held a news conference in Urdu and English and disclosed the inquiry was in three phases.

“The first phase, which I cannot disclose at the moment, the second phase of recovery of the child safely, which we have achieved,” he said.

He added that he could not reveal the details of the “third phase” for fear of harming the investigation. He admitted that the police still did not have the suspects in custody.

“We will continue with the process until we get hold of the culprits,” he said.

Analysts familiar with the pattern of kidnapping in Pakistan are not optimistic that the inside story of what really happened to Sahil will ever be told. The Pakistani government, placed under pressure by Britain, realised it would be disastrous for its image if Sahil was not found alive. But it may now not want to dig any deeper.

Back in Britain, where Sahil’s parents will have to sort out their marriage, Jane Sheridan, headmistress at Rushcroft Primary School, said: “We are delighted to hear that Sahil has been released safe and well. Along with his family, we eagerly await his return to Oldham, and back to Rushcroft where he has been missed by his friends and teachers.”