LAHORE:
The police did not hand over to the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB) the four minor girls rescued after their abduction from the Hanjarwal area of Lahore.
A team of the bureau was told to visit several offices and it continued to strive for about seven hours to meet the girls but the investigation police reportedly kept them in their custody overnight.
Questions were also raised about how the kidnappers succeeded in taking the girls 170 kilometres away from the city despite extensive police patrolling and checkpoints.
Sadar Investigation SP Issa Khan told The Express Tribune that initial investigation had divulged that a suspect named Kashif used to kidnap girls from Lahore and had contact with Shahzad in Sahiwal.
Asif, another member of the gang, and his wife run a beauty parlor, but they also train young girls to dance and then send them to parties, the official said.
In reply to a question, the SP Issa Khan said the girls had reached Lahore late at night after being rescued from Sahiwal and the police had to make preparations to present the case in court the next morning, which was why they were kept under the supervision of a woman police officer in the Sadar Division Gender Cell and their special care was taken.
According to sources, the police did not give the girls into the bureau’s custody to take credit for presenting them in the court.
The Child Protection Bureau fulfils the legal requirements itself through a special court. The sources further said that the police could not hand over the girls to the bureau without their medical examination, which was necessary for preserving evidence and later the court would have found the police guilty of losing the medical evidence of the girls.
After giving a statement in the court the next day, the girls were handed over to their parents as per their wish.
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The sources said the initial medical report submitted to the court did not show any evidence of abuse of the four girls.
According to Child Protection Bureau Chairperson Sarah Ahmed, the organisation was informed that the girls had been rescued from Sahiwal.
She said the bureau had been told to send a team to Hanjarwal police station. Later they were asked to visit the Nawankot police station and CCPO office, but the girls were not handed over to the bureau till the night. “Our team did not even see the girls that night,” she added.
Anam Irfan 10, and Kinza Irfan 11, are sisters. The other two girls identified as Ayesha 14, and Samreen 8, were also sisters and friends and neighbours to Anam and Kinza.
The girls had reportedly left their house to visit Orange Line Metro Train but did not return.
The complainant Irfan Iftikhar registered a complaint before the police mentioning that his two daughters along with their two friends left the house to visit Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) but did not return home.
The family failed to find a trace of the girls. “I believe they have been abducted by some suspects,” he shared his fear. The complainant also shared a cell phone number that the girls were carrying with them.
Police have registered an FIR on his complaint but could not find a trace of the girls so far. Police have opened the investigations keeping in view different angles.
“The cell phone is the only lead so far with the police,” shared an investigator. He added that police had collected call detail records (CDRs) and were analysing the same. A suspect from lead from CDR has been taken into custody.
“He is a young boy named Umar, a neighbour of the girls and might be a friend or peer,” he said. Umar was in contact with the girls frequently before they went missing. He was the last person whom the girls contacted before disappearing under suspicious circumstances, he added.
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