‘Kidnapping drama’: Runaway students off the hook after withdrawal of FIR

Magistrate denies police request for remand, medical exams.

RAWALPINDI:

The police dropped the kidnapping case of six students of a private school on Tuesday after the mother of one of the girls withdrew her complaint.

Kosar Perveen stated before the court of a magistrate that she did not want to pursue the case anymore.

The magistrate ordered the release of the three boys and three girls after they stated they were not kidnapped.

The students, who were recovered from a Peshawar hotel on Monday, recorded their statements before Judicial Magistrate Rai Ijaz Ahmed, claiming that they had left their houses after their school principal subjected them to corporal punishment.

The Airport Police Station House Officer (SHO) Inspector Saqib Nisar confirmed that the students, who vanished on January 19, told the magistrate that they ran away because the APSIS School System administration subjected them to physical torture.

Following the statements of the students and one of the complainants, Muhammad Akram, the area magistrate turned down the police request for physical remand of the boys and medical examination of the girls, and allowed all of them to go home.

Hamza Ali, one of the students, claimed that they planned to run away from home together because their families were not supporting them over the harsh attitude of the school.

City Police Officer (CPO) Azhar Hameed Khokhar said they could not do anything after the complainant withdrew her FIR. When asked about the allegations against the school administration, the CPO said it was irrational to leave home and flee to Peshawar just because teachers punished them at school, but added that if the police received any written complaint against the school administration, which is run by the wife of a police official, proper action would be taken against them.

The six students — Iqra Naeem, 16, Hamza Ali, 16, Wajeeha Asghar, 17, Abu Bakar, 18, Areeba Akram, 16, and her brother Waleed Akram, 15, — first went to Abbottabad and later reached Peshawar and checked into a hotel in Hashtnagri.

The hotel management, who identified them as those missing from Rawalpindi and informed the police who took them into custody and informed their parents.

According to a source, the missing children wanted to get a large amount from their parents by staging the ‘kidnapping’ drama. However, the police did not comment on reports that the children were responsible for the ransom calls.

Commenting on the whole issue, Khokhar said it was sad to learn that in the whole episode, some of the students’ relatives were aware of the plan but did not step in.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2012.