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Safe recovery: Kidnapped three-year-old returns home after 12 hours

Family alleges that a rickshaw driver took the girl in Samanabad

Our Correspondent May 18, 2016 1 min read

The officer said that the police have conducted a number of raids in search of the rickshaw driver but he could not be found. He said the police are still searching for him in order to ascertain what actually happened. STOCK IMAGE

KARACHI: A three-year-old girl returned home 12 hours after being kidnapped. The girl was allegedly kidnapped by a rickshaw driver from Federal B Area's Samanabad late on Tuesday night.

Three-year-old Dua, along with her mother, Ambreen, and aunt, were returning to their home in Surjani Town after visiting Abdullah Shah Ghazi's shrine in Clifton when she was allegedly kidnapped by a rickshaw driver. "The rickshaw driver stopped the rickshaw near Edhi Centre in Samanabad and asked us to get out, claiming that the rickshaw had developed a fault," said Ambreen. "Before we could take Dua out of the rickshaw, he got away."

Following the incident, the women began shouting and screaming and called their family. A score of family members gathered outside the Samanabad police station and staged a protest against the incident.

The police and family began searching for the minor girl and rickshaw driver but were unable to locate them. After an entire night of searching, a man named Muhammad Nabi called the Edhi Centre and informed them about the missing girl's presence in Sohrab Goth. Police and Edhi Centre staffers reached the site, recovered the girl and later handed her over to her parents at the Samanabad police station.

The police believe it was not a case of kidnapping. "An exchange of hot words occurred between the women and the rickshaw driver over the fare while they were travelling," said SHO Rao Ahsan. "The rickshaw driver stopped the rickshaw due to the fight but because of the women's screams, a crowd of people gathered, which forced the driver to flee in order to avoid a public beating," he said while quoting the initial investigation.

The officer said that the police have conducted a number of raids in search of the rickshaw driver but he could not be found. He said the police are still searching for him in order to ascertain what actually happened.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2016.