Ten suspects arrested for Hindu girl’s kidnapping

Three-year-old Anchal was picked up outside a temple on Wednesday.

SUKKUR: The Kashmore police arrested 10 suspects during an overnight operation in the kachcha areas, following the kidnapping of a Hindu girl, Anchal, from Hindu Mohalla on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people staged a sit-in outside the Kashmore police station for the second consecutive day on Friday. Led by the kidnapped girl’s father, Ganesh Chand, as well as Shehri Action Committee chairman Qadir Nawaz Jakhrani, the protesters shouted slogans against the police for their failure to arrest the suspects or find the three-year-old girl, who was kidnapped from outside a temple. DPO Kashmore Syed Asad Raza Shah and MNA Gul Mohammad Jakhrani tried to negotiate with the protesters, who gave the police an ultimatum of two days.

While Shah later admitted to his meeting with the protesters, he said that he could not set a deadline for her recovery. He added, however, that “sincere efforts were being made to find her” and that 10 suspects had been arrested. He was also optimistic that no ransom needed to be paid.

Jakhrani said that the law and order situation in Kashmore has been bad for quite some time and that kidnappings for ransom, especially of Hindu children, were “rampant”. Earlier, all hostages were freed after the payment of ransom, while the police used to claim that the hostages had been freed after encounters with the kidnappers, said Jakhrani, who claimed that the present DPO is “a dedicated officer” who is against this practice. “During his tenure, two children, Mahaz Pathan and Dheraj Kumar, were freed without paying ransom. I am hopeful that Anchal will also be freed soon and without paying ransom,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2010.