Kuala Lumpur – A Malaysian businessman working in the North Sumatra capital of Medan has been kidnapped for ransom, reports said yesterday quoting his wife.

The New Straits Times newspaper quoted Sakinah Hassan as saying that her husband Basir Ismail first called her on August 21 to say he was being held by unknown persons but was safe. She said Basir (34) called again four days later, saying he had been taken to Lhangsa in Aceh and that the kidnappers had demanded more than US$26,316 for his freedom.

Sakinah said the kidnappers themselves had called her almost daily in the past week to demand the ransom and gave her until yesterday to transfer the money to the Military Police office in Aceh.

Sakinah said she had sought help from the Malaysian Foreign Ministry and the police. The Malay-language Utusan Malaysia daily quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying they were still investigating and could not confirm if Basir had really been kidnapped or was just "temporarily missing".

The couple from Malaysia's northern state of Kedah have four children. Basir works for a forex trading company, PT Dana Trikarya Indonesia, which he started in Medan with a local partner a year ago.