Mother’s cuddle for kidnap boy, 5, after his 13-day ordeal

Sahil Saeed, the five-year-old boy kidnapped in Pakistan, clung to his mother last night as his family celebrated his return to Oldham with a party.

Wellwishers cheered as Akila Naqqash, 31, his mother, posed on the doorstep with a “Welcome home, Sahil!” poster flying from an upstairs window.

Sahil, exhausted from his eight-hour flight from Islamabad, buried his face in his mother’s shoulder as she stood with her husband, Raja Naqqash Saeed, 28.

The boy ignored his parents’ attempts to make him show his face and then, with a wave, the trio stepped back inside to rejoin the family.

Father and son landed at Manchester airport at 6.30pm, bringing to an end an extraordinary ordeal that began when he was seized by gunmen at his grandmother’s home in Jhelum, Punjab, on March 4 and held for 13 days before being freed. He was found wandering in a field 20 miles away.