A GANG has admitted dressing up as police officers to kidnap and attack two Blackburn men.

Mohammed Shaikh, 22, of June Street, Blackburn, Nailem Abbas, 26, of Queen’s Road, Blackburn and Farhan Aslam, 19, Wayne Farrell, 29, and Carl Singleton, 37, all from Rochdale pleaded guilty to abducting Naeem Mohammed, 19, and his friend Salim Mulla, 20, from Sandwich Close, in Shadsworth last December.

Dressed in police stab vests and armed with coshes, swords and a sledge hammer, the gang handcuffed the friends who had been smoking cannabis in their car, and bundled them into a Vauxhall Meriva, police said.

The gang, who then drove the pals around Blackburn, Haslingden and Rochdale for two hours attacking the pair, admitted two charges of conspiracy to kidnap at Preston Crown Court.

The court heard the two men were finally released from the car near Shadsworth Leisure Centre in Shadsworth Road.

Speaking shortly after the incident former Blackburn College student, Naeem Mohammed, described his ordeal as ‘horrific’.

He said: “They said they were police and we were under arrest but they wouldn’t tell us why.

“They dragged me out and made me put my hands behind my back and smacked me against the car before doing the same to my friend.

“I was in so much pain and I just could not cope.

“It is one of the most awful things that has ever happened to me and I am never going to forget it.”

The friends, who were dumped in the street still handcuffed, were able toflag down two passing motorists who alerted police.

Both men suffered extensive bruising and swelling to their bodies, The gang’s members were remanded in custody until sentencing on August 24.

A sixth man, Nicholas Redden, 25, of Holden Wood Drive, Haslingden was released without charge after the crown prosecution offered no evidence for him to answer.