Runaway teens: ‘Missing’ students found chilling in Peshawar
Police mulling charges against them; ‘ransom demand’ may have come from children.
RAWALPINDI/PESHAWAR:
The six students of a private school who went missing from Rawalpindi last week were recovered from Peshawar on Monday. They were brought back by the Rawalpindi police, five days after they ‘disappeared’.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Peshawar, Tahir Ayub confirmed to The Express Tribune that the runaway teens including three girls were nabbed from Hashtnagri area.
The official said that the children have been handed over to the Rawalpindi police. However, he did not explain where the children were staying or how police traced their whereabouts.
“They were not kidnapped and had in fact come to Peshawar of their own accord,” the SSP said.
A police official who was part of the team that went to Peshawar to collect the students, including a boy and his sister, said, “They will be investigated and medically examined before handing them over to their families,” adding that they would be taken into custody and produced before a magistrate.
Ninth graders Iqra Naeem and Hamza Ali, and tenth graders Wajeeha Asghar, Areeba Akram, Abu Bakar, and Waleed Akram, all students at APSIS School System in Chaklala Scheme-III, disappeared under mysterious circumstances on January 19. The students left for school, but according to the school administration, they did not turn up there. Following their disappearance, the school administration and the parents lodged a complaint with the Airport Police. The police registered an abduction case on January 20 and started search for the students.
The officer further said that the families had received a call from an unknown person asking for Rs50 million ‘ransom’ for the release of the students.
The students were first believed to be hiding in Murree, but they switched off their cellphones and left them at a hotel in the hill station.
The police tracing the caller through the mobile SIM and learnt that the call was made on Monday morning from Peshawar.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2012.
The six students of a private school who went missing from Rawalpindi last week were recovered from Peshawar on Monday. They were brought back by the Rawalpindi police, five days after they ‘disappeared’.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Peshawar, Tahir Ayub confirmed to The Express Tribune that the runaway teens including three girls were nabbed from Hashtnagri area.
The official said that the children have been handed over to the Rawalpindi police. However, he did not explain where the children were staying or how police traced their whereabouts.
“They were not kidnapped and had in fact come to Peshawar of their own accord,” the SSP said.
A police official who was part of the team that went to Peshawar to collect the students, including a boy and his sister, said, “They will be investigated and medically examined before handing them over to their families,” adding that they would be taken into custody and produced before a magistrate.
Ninth graders Iqra Naeem and Hamza Ali, and tenth graders Wajeeha Asghar, Areeba Akram, Abu Bakar, and Waleed Akram, all students at APSIS School System in Chaklala Scheme-III, disappeared under mysterious circumstances on January 19. The students left for school, but according to the school administration, they did not turn up there. Following their disappearance, the school administration and the parents lodged a complaint with the Airport Police. The police registered an abduction case on January 20 and started search for the students.
The officer further said that the families had received a call from an unknown person asking for Rs50 million ‘ransom’ for the release of the students.
The students were first believed to be hiding in Murree, but they switched off their cellphones and left them at a hotel in the hill station.
The police tracing the caller through the mobile SIM and learnt that the call was made on Monday morning from Peshawar.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2012.