Whisked off: Girl abducted by father finally returns home

Father took Atiya to Lahore, told mother she would never see her again.

LONDON:

A six-year-old girl is on her way home to Britain more than three years after she was abducted by her father and taken to Pakistan, police said on Friday.

Atiya Anjum-Wilkinson disappeared in November 2009 after going to stay with her father, Razwan Ali Anjum. Anjum, a former insurance salesman told the girl’s mother, Gemma Wilkinson, that he was taking Atiya to Southport in northwest England but instead took her to Lahore.

Anjum had told his former partner that she was “never going to see Atiya again”.

Anjum is currently serving a prison sentence in Britain for refusing to reveal his daughter’s whereabouts despite a court order. Just last month Atiya’s 32-year-old mother launched a fresh appeal for information about her daughter.

Officials and the foreign media stated that the girl was taken into protective custody by Pakistani officials when she was found in Sialkot this week.

District Police Officer (DPO) Sialkot, Afzaal Ahmed Kausar, said that the police was not ‘formally on-board’ as no case was registered. Police said Atiya was due to arrive at Manchester Airport later on Friday.

Anjum was given a fourth consecutive jail term by a High Court judge in April after he refused to reveal where his daughter was. He indicated that Atiya was either in Pakistan or was taken to Iran by a man named ‘Khan’, but insisted he did not know her exact whereabouts.

Another judge has previously said the case was “as bad a case of child abduction as I have encountered”. It is thought that Atiya was found after the police issued a computer-generated image of what Atiya would look like now. Speaking then, her mother said: “It’s been an absolute nightmare. As to her whereabouts we know nothing. We’ve had no contact.”

“I’m worrying every day, every single day. Everything is affected by it. When I close my eyes I see her.” (with input by Asad Kharal in Lahore)

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2012.