BEIRUT: Authorities are continuing their efforts Thursday to secure the release of Mohammad Nibal Awada, who was kidnapped Wednesday morning for a $1 million ransom, security sources said.
The sources said the kidnappers had not set a deadline for the payment of the ransom needed for the release of the 12-year-old boy, who was snatched at gunpoint in Beirut.
The kidnappers made their ransom demand in telephone calls to the family, the sources added. Awada was waiting for his school bus outside his home in Jnah when, at approximately 7 a.m., four unidentified gunmen pulled up in a Nissan Sunny and kidnapped him.
During one of the calls with the kidnappers, the boy’s father tried to persuade the captors to reduce the ransom, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.