Cops offer £20,000 reward in hunt for dad who ‘abducted boys, aged 3, 5 and 6, at knifepoint’
A REWARD of £20,000 has been offered in the hunt for three brothers snatched from a foster home at knifepoint by their dad.
Imran Safi, 26, burst into the home in Coulsdon, South London, on August 20.
He snatched Bilal, six, Ebrar, five, and three-year-old Yaseen as they played in the garden before fleeing.
He is said to have threatened the woman with a knife and assaulted her before driving the boys away in a red Nissan Qashqai, registration PK13 WFO, which was later found abandoned in the area.
Detectives issued an image of a bearded man with a stripy jumper who was sitting in the front passenger seat at the time the children were kidnapped by their father.
Police today issued an appeal to trace a bearded man seen in the car used by Imran Safi to snatch sons Bilal, six, Mohammed Ebrar, five, and three-year-old Mohammed Yaseen.
They also released poignant photographs taken by their foster mum of the brothers playing in a local park hours before the abduction.
The Met Police said: “Despite extensive operational and forensic work, we have not been able to identify the man, who was sat in the front passenger seat as the car made off from the abduction.
“The red Nissan was photographed travelling down Malpit Road, Coulsdon, towards Coulsdon Central shortly after the abduction.”
A total of 15 people have been arrested in connection with the hunt with all bailed until a later date.
Met commander Bas Javid, said: “I can’t imagine how distressing this whole situation has been for the three young boys, who have been taken away from their safe environment, and our efforts to locate Imran Safi continues.”
” We are now offering a £20,000 reward for any information that will help us to bring the children home safely.
“We also need the public’s help to identify a man who was the passenger in the red Nissan at the time the children were taken.
“He may hold valuable information as to where the children and Imran Safi are. We appreciate that the image is not the clearest quality but we still need people to really study it and see if the man in the picture is one that they may recognise.”
The boys, due to be formally adopted soon after their abduction, are suspected by police to have been smuggled abroad by Afghan-born Safi, who also has links to Pakistan.
Commander Javid, continued: “The investigative team has been working tirelessly on this case and we are appealing again because someone reading or seeing this knows the whereabouts of these innocent children and I need them to contact us urgently and provide that knowledge.
“We believe that Safi and the children have most likely left the UK, but our investigation continues and we will continue to do everything we can to locate the children and arrest Safi.
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“Our working theory is that they have left via a clandestine route, but to where? We remain unsure, and that is why we need people across the country, and abroad to share this appeal for information.
“The focus of this operation is returning these innocent children to the UK which is our top priority. We hope that offering this reward will lead to some significant information being passed to us.”
Anyone with information is urged to call the incident room on 07942599374 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.