Girl recovered within hours, kidnapper arrested in Jhelum

Police convince frightened father to file case against culprit

JEHLUM:

Police have arrested a suspect wanted for the kidnapping of a girl from outside her school. The child was safely recovered within hours, but the father was too scared to file a case due to threats of dire consequences by the kidnapper, officials said.

Jhelum police officers had to go to the house of the victim and assure her father of full security to convince him to file a case so that they could arrest the culprit.

Tasawwar Husain had filed a complaint at the City police station on Thursday that he had received a phone call from the Government Girls High School Machine Mohalla at 7:30am that his daughter, a student of grade ten, had not come to school. He said that the child had left for school as usual and her absence alarmed him.

He rushed to the school where people told him that a man named Bilal Muzaffar had kidnapped her in a black double-cabin pickup bearing a 444 number plate.

Husain said he started searching for her daughter and found the pickup near Mandi Mor. The father said he tried to stop Muzaffar but he escaped towards Deena.

Later, city police station investigation officer Muhammad Naeem registered a case under 365-B of the Pakistan Penal Code relating to kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel for marriage and sent an alert to all police mobiles.

Meanwhile, Jhelum District Police Officer Shakir Hussain Dawar was informed about the incident and he mobilised the whole district police to trace the vehicle and recover the child. Owning to swift coordination of the force, the vehicle was spotted and the child was recovered, while Muzaffar was taken into custody.

Intimidated by threats

Although the kidnapping suspect was arrested, the victim’s father was reluctant to request legal proceedings against him. Husain kept telling the City police that his child was safe with him and that is all he wanted and did not want to get involved in any case.

The kidnaper, Bilal Muzaffar had warned Husain of dire consequences if he dared file a case against him.

However, a video of Muzaffar trying to run away with the girl in his black double-cabin pickup and her father trying to stop him went viral on social media. The video shows Muzaffar throwing the girl's father to the ground and driving away. DPO Dawar ordered the city police station SHO to go to the girl's house to find out the full situation.

On assurance of full security to the child and her family, Husain agreed to go ahead with the legal proceedings after which case number 85/21 with charges of 365-B was registered against the accused. A separate case with charges 452/506 was registered against the accused of hurling a threat to life. A police team under Saddar DSP Akram Gondal arrested Muzaffar. He faces a maximum sentence of seven years of rigorous imprisonment if convicted.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2021.