Life-saving text: Gang abducts women, arranges their marriage in rural Sindh

KARACHI:

A kidnapping ring in Karachi is abducting women and ‘arranges’ their marriages in rural Sindh.

This came to surface after a woman, Rifat Jahan, was found from a remote area near Faiz Ganj, in Khairpur district.

Jahan’s husband, Mehmood Ali, had registered a case for his wife’s kidnapping on June 19 at Super Market police station. He had stated that his wife had been kidnapped with their two children, 2.5 -year old Mashail and five-year-old Mehrooz.

According to Ali, the kidnappers did not call him for ransom. While being held hostage, Jahan managed to send her husband a text message but she couldn’t tell him where she was. Sometime later, she sent another text, through a maid of the house she was being kept in and told her husband that she was being held near Faiz Ganj.

When the kidnappers found out that Jahan sent a text they beat her severely.

The investigation officer, Karim Dad, told Express News that Jahan’s husband had informed the police immediately about the text. The police took help of Citizens-Police Liaison Committee and were able to trace Jahan’s location.

When the police raided the house, the captors escaped with Jahan and her children. However, Jahan was found after couple of hours when they searched the area. She told the police that her kidnappers were forcing her to get married. There were four men and two women in the house where she was kept.

Karim Dad believed that the kidnappers had been tipped off before the raid and escaped.

The mobile SIM used by Jahan for sending texts was registered in the name of Abdul Rehman. But when the police traced the address they found out that Rehman had died several years ago.

They also searched the houses nearby but found nothing to help the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2012.