Missing since 2007: Police still clueless about Fazila Sarki’s whereabouts

Family of kidnapped six-year-old protests at Garhi Khuda Bux

SUKKUR: Fazila Sarki, a resident of Garhi Hassan Sarki near Thull town of Jacobabad, was kidnapped in 2007 at the age of six.

The case turned high profile after continuous media coverage led the Supreme Court to take a suo motu notice a year after the incident. The apex court, in its order, directed the then SSP Jacobabad to recover the girl within a month and report back. However, the police are still clueless about the whereabouts of Fazila, who would be around 15 today.

Fazila's father Abdul Razzaq Sarki and other family members and locals organised a protest on Tuesday at the martyrs' mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bux. Talking to The Express Tribune, Abdul Razzaq said his daughter was kidnapped on March 23, 2007. After failing to find his daughter, Sarki lodged an FIR at Garhi Hassan Sarki police station against four accused: Qadir Bux Sarki, Baboo Sarki, Kareem Bux Sarki and Allah Warayo Sarki, who were arrested and charge-sheeted in the anti-terrorism court Jacobabad but later were released on bail.

The abductee's father narrated that a month after the kidnapping, a meeting was held under the joint chair of Sardar Zulfiqar Sarki, Sardar Umer Daraz and Sardar Makhno Khan Khoso in Deen Garh village. In that meeting, Abdul Razzaq claimed, all four accused admitted their crime and promised to return the girl. "But despite the lapse of nine and a half years, they are yet to give me back my daughter," he added.

According to him, the accused are being backed by influential sardars of the area. He also said that there have been times when the accused have said that they had handed over Fazila to a notorious dacoit Budho Sarki, who was killed in an encounter with the police a couple of years ago. When contacted, Sardar Sarki claimed that Abdul Razzaq and the accused are relatives. He said that as the sardar of the community, he has requested the accused several times to return the girl, "but they are not cooperating." The accused have now shifted to the bordering villages of Balochistan and recently torched my wheat stock, explained the sardar, adding that at least eight more children have gone missing from Thull town during the last five years. Jacobabad SSP Sajid Khokhar did not respond to a request for comments.

Early this year, a heavy contingent of Shikarpur police raided Aftab Colony in Ghotki. Following the raid, police recovered two girls from a house out of which one was said to be Fazila. Both the girls were taken to Shikarpur and Abdul Razzaq was called in to identify  Fazila. However, the father claimed the girl in question did not bear a wound mark on her head and left foot that his daughter has and rejected the police claim of having recovered Fazila.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2016.