Trafficked children returned to their rightful guardians in Rawalpindi

Missing fourth child recovered from the custody of suspect after he was threatened with court action

RAWALPINDI: Four children, who had allegedly been sold off, were handed over to their true guardians on Thursday after the fourth missing child was recovered.

During Thursday’s hearing, the guardians of the four children appeared before the additional district and sessions judge. The guardians and the children insisted that their missing sibling, six-year-old A*, was being held captive by one of the suspects, Faisal.

Faisal maintained that while he had indeed been offered the child but he had refused to take him on because the child was far too young to be employed. The three children, who had been recovered from various relatives of the suspects, and their guardians, however, insisted that A was still in the custody of the suspect.

Banni police’s Investigation Officer Malik Aftab said that Faisal was warned that unless he complied he could face further inquiry with increased scrutiny and penalty and that he should consider this the last chance to come clean.

Faisal then presented the fourth child, A*, before the court. Later, after verifying their authenticity, the court handed the four children over to their guardians after which they left for their home.

On Wednesday, police had recovered two girls and a boy from the custody of two men Farooq and Faisal.

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The recoveries were made after Manzoor had filed an application in the court of an additional district and sessions judge in Lahore about the disappearance of his four grandchildren including 14-year-old R*, 10-year-old Q* seven-year-old M* and A.

He had claimed that two men in Rawalpindi, Farooq and Faisal, were allegedly holding these children.

SI Aftab investigated the two men and discovered that the children had been offered to him by a woman named Zubaida — a close relative of Manzoor — for Rs140,000 because she could no longer feed them. Later, Farooq brought the children to Rawalpindi. Farooq told the police that he left the eldest child with his cousin Asim, the boy with his cousin Asad and the younger girl with a man named Deputy Saleem.

*NAME WITHHELD TO PROTECT IDENTITY 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2019.