Traced: Missing women left for Syria on their own, says DIG

Operations DIG Dr Haider Ashraf says CTD had found that they left from Karachi, Gwadar

LAHORE:

The families of the missing women and children have retracted their complaints about kidnapping of their relatives and have stated that they left homes on their own to go to Syria, Operations DIG Dr Haider Ashraf told an international media outlet on Saturday.

Speaking to BBC Urdu, he said an investigation by the Counter-Terrorism Department confirmed the claimed. The CTD investigation revealed that some women and children had left for Syria from Karachi and others from Gawadar, he said.

The relatives also told the police that some of the women had approached them on the social media and asked them to join them in Syria.

Earlier, relatives of the missing women and children had filed complaints with the police about their kidnapping.

The FIRs had stated that the women and children went missing during September and October.

In the FIR registered with Township police, complainant Khalid Cheema had stated that his wife and four children had gone missing several days ago.

Imran Khalid had registered a complaint with Wahdat Colony police about the kidnapping of his sister, Farhana Hamid, and five children aged between 10 and 16 year.

In the third FIR registered with Hanjarwal police, Hamid had been nominated as a suspect for kidnapping of (complainant) Fatima Bibi’s 14-year-old daughter.

Speaking to The Express Tribune before the Operation DIG’s statement, CCPO Amis Wains had dismissed on December 31 suggestions about the presence of ISIS operatives in the city. He had expressed ignorance of anyone leaving the city with the intention of joining the ISIS forces in Syria. He had said that the police were investigating the matter of missing women and children.

The CCPO had said that the police had yet to track down the perpetrators of a cracker attack at the office of DIN News, a private television channel.

Graffiti, wall-chalking and distribution of pamphlets carrying acclaim for the ISIS had been reported from Nawab Town area last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2016.