Dua recovered from a village near Pakpattan

Girl asserts she is 18-years-old

LAHORE:

Dua Zehra, the girl who went missing from Al-Falah Society of Karachi over 10 days back, has been recovered from a village near Pakpattan.

She had reportedly moved to the house of the uncle of her “husband”, Zaheer Ahmad.

Reportedly, Zaheer Ahmad's home was at Haveli Lakha in Okara. However, the couple had moved to Pakpattan to avoid police action.

Karachi Police had handed over a marriage certificate to Lahore Police in which Dua’s address was mentioned as Sher Shah Colony, Raiwind.

However, when police reached there they could not find Dua or her husband there.

Police then followed the addresses of the Nikah Khwan and the witnesses.

No one knew about Zaheer in Sher Shah Colony address. However, during the inquiry, it came forth that a relative of Zaheer’s had rented out the place some time back.

The relative had had an address of Okara on it. This was a great lead, and the police followed it and went to Haveli Lakha in Okara.

Even there, the police did not find the couple. However, another possible destination came to police’s knowledge.

The police followed it and recovered the girl.

The SHO of Haveli Lakha escorted the girl to the office of SP of Saddar in Lahore.

Dua also released a video statement asserting that she was 18-years-old and had moved out of her parents’ house to marry Zaheer Ahmad, and that no one had kidnapped her. She also said she did not take anything precious with her while leaving her parents’ house.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2022.