The long road home: Girl, kidnapped and made to beg, repatriated to elder sister after 11 years

Tasleem’s parents had died from grief after her abduction

KARACHI: A local court ordered to hand over the custody of a young girl, Tasleem, who had been missing for the last 11 years, to her elder sister, Saima. The court was hearing Saima's petition, seeking the custody of Tasleem.

The girl was brought to the court by representatives of the Edhi Welfare Organisation. According to the report submitted to the court, an unidentified woman had brought Tasleem to the Edhi Centre in 2011.

Tasleem told the court that she had been kidnaped by a man when she was playing in the park. "They made me beg in the streets for three years," said Tasleem. Saima had argued in her petition that she had gone missing from Badin in 2008. Their parents had never been able to come to terms with the tragedy and eventually died in her grief.  She said that she had recognised her sister in pictures of girls hung at the Edhi Centre. The court ordered to hand over Tasleem to Saima's custody. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2019.