K-P police bust int'l trafficking gang, recover minor girl from Afghanistan

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Police have arrested an Afghan couple – part of an international human trafficking gang – and recovered a minor girl, who was abducted from her house in Bannu three years ago, from Afghanistan.

According to local police in Bannu district, 10-year-old Gulalai, who was seven at the time of her abduction, her four-year-old sister Fatima and their mother were taken to Torkham border by the suspects — Asif and his wife Shazia — on the pretext of shopping.

According to FIR of the case, Gulalai and her family members frequently visited the Afghan couple's home as their neighbours. "One day, Shazia asked Gulalai's mother to accompany her for shopping. She also took her two daughters with her."

However, the gang sold Gulalai in Afghan province Khost while Fatima and their mother were sold in capital Kabul for only 85,000 Afghanis.

Mirzada, the investigating officer of the case, told The Express Tribune that in 2018, a man named Raees filed an FIR for the disappearance of his wife and two daughters at Domail police station in Bannu.

He said that Gulalai's mother and sister managed to escape from Kabul in 2019 and returned to Pakistan. However, they did not know the whereabouts of Gulalai.

"After selling three women from Bannu to Afghanistan, the couple kidnapped two Afghan girls from Afghanistan and brought them to Pakistan and forced them to beg in Karachi," the investigating officer revealed.

The couple was arrested in Karachi for the crime and spent 20 months behind bars but soon after their prison term was over in the port city, Bannu police arrested them in connection with the abduction of Gulalai and her family.

During the interrogation, the accused disclosed that Gulalai was sold in Afghanistan. Bannu police, along with a technical team led by former DPO Wasim Riaz and SP Investigation Bannu Ziaul Hassan, recovered the 10-year-old girl from Khost province of the neighbouring country. She was later handed over to the Pakistani authorities at the Torkham border.

Hassan said that Shazia and her husband Asif, who are part of an international gang involved in human trafficking, are in police’s custody and further investigation is underway.