Pakistani police 'closing in' on gang who kidnapped boy

But four officers have been suspended over the way the kidnap was handled. The police did not initially respond to the family's emergency call to "Rescue 15", the Pakistani equivalent of 999.

However, interior minister Rehman Malik said police have clues that indicate the crime was carried out by people close to the boy's family, which has Pakistani origins.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Jhelum, the city where Sahil Saeed was snatched from his grandmother's house on Wednesday night after robbers held the family at gunpoint for several hours, Mr Malik said: "We have certain leads that I would not like to discuss."

The robbers also took some household possessions and demanded a large ransom to return the child, whose plight has received significant attention in both Pakistan and Britain.

"I am warning those abductors to release the boy because we are very near to you," Mr Malik said.

The boy's family has made several emotional appeals for his release, and his father, Raja Naqqash Saeed, said yesterday that he was satisfied with the Pakistani government's efforts after meeting with Mr Malik.

"My son will come back home safely, God willing," Mr Saeed said during a joint appearance with the interior minister.

In an earlier interview Mr Saeed revealed the kidnappers demanded 100,000 in ransom.

The family had been scheduled to return to Britain on Thursday before the kidnapping occurred.

The case is among a soaring number of kidnappings for ransom in Pakistan, where Taleban-led militancy and a struggling economy have fuelled crime.

A statement from the Foreign Office said: "Our thoughts are with Sahil and his family at this extremely distressing time. We call on whoever is holding Sahil to return him to his family."