World News | S Africans Pray for Safe Return of Four Young Indian-origin Brothers Abducted on Way to School

Johannesburg, Oct 22 (PTI) Tens of thousands of South Africans participated in special prayers across the country on Friday as four Indian-origin brothers who were abducted on Wednesday morning while on their way to school remained missing.

Zidan, 6, Zayyad, 11, Alaan, 13, and Zia, 15 , are the sons of wealthy businessman Nazim Moti, who is based in Polokwane, the main city of Limpopo province in the north of South Africa.

Also Read | China Bans Quran Apps, LinkedIn and Yahoo News As Major Crack Down on Foreign Content.

They were abducted by seven armed men wearing white overalls in two vehicles that blocked the car they were travelling in on their way to school on Wednesday morning.

The driver, 64, was left unharmed.

Also Read | Jupiter Hit by Another Space Rock in Rare Views Captured by Skywatchers in Japan.

Police spokesman Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said a large team of specialised police officers countrywide, especially in neighbouring Gauteng province, are involved in the search.

There has been no word from their abductors for three days now, although the family lawyer, Philip Smit, told local media that he believes the kidnapping was ransom-motivated.

But the distraught family said no payment demand had been made as they appealed to the public to assist in finding their children.

However, Martin Ewi, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies and an expert on organised crime in Africa, concurred with Smit's view.

"'When children are abducted, it is usually children of rich families. Criminals will spot a child, notice that the family are wealthy and think, 'Here is a chance to make some money,'" Ewi told the Afrikaans news service Netwerk 24.

Ewi said since 2016 there has been an increase in the number of wealthy families being targeted.

Bianca van Aswegen, a criminologist and national co-ordinator for Missing Children SA, told the service that since last year there has been an increase in the number of children who have been reported missing.

Lizette Lancaster, from the Institute for Security Studies, told TimesLive newspaper: "There is a high level of planning involved and it might be that these people are quite cool and collected and they know exactly what they are doing, they have done this before — and in that case, getting the police involved and making sure that you use all avenues to track down these children is quite important to make sure that these people are found and arrested.

"Of course, there is always the risk that matters become almost hot ... They might choose to abandon the children somewhere or abandon their plans to ask for a ransom. But it was very well planned and the chances are that they will still (make a ransom demand). We are just speculating," Lancaster added.

The prayer on Friday was coordinated by Catherine Constantinides, a former Miss Earth South Africa, who is a champion of issues related to empowerment of women, children and gender equality.

She tweeted: "'These are not just four children of a family from Polokwane, these are OUR children as a nation. I cannot begin to imagine the horror for the family and for these four boys."

The Curro Heuwelkruin Independent School, where the boys are pupils, posted a picture on Facebook of teachers and pupils kneeling in prayer for their safe return.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)