Girl kidnapped, sold and recovered

14-year-old being kept at Darul Aman in Islamabad after being recovered from a kidnapping incident.

ISLAMABAD: A 14-year-old girl is being kept at Daraul Aman in Islamabad after having been recovered from what her father claims was a kidnapping incident.

The girl, Iqra, went missing from Dhok Allah Dad in Bhara Kahu on August 23 and was sold in Peshawar before being recovered two days later by the Islamabad police.

But despite her father approaching the police when the incident occurred, a kidnapping case was registered only after the orders of the court on Wednesday last week after a delay of twenty days.

None of the four accused men — Waheed, Naveed, Javed and Hazrat Ali — have been arrested so far.

After the case was registered, the girl was sent to a hospital for medical and DNA tests to ascertain whether she was raped. Later, she was sent to Darul Aman.

Qari Naveed, Iqra’s father, said the girl had gone to Naveed’s shop to buy household stuff while her mother was not at home. Naveed, with the help of his brother Waheed and another accomplice Javed, kidnapped her from the shop.

“They tricked her into going to Murree with them,” her father said. From there, they took her to Peshawar where she was handed over to Hazrat Ali. According to Qari Naveed’s account, she was traced in Peshawar by him and Bhara Kahu police, but Hazrat Ali refused to return her, claiming that he had paid Rs200,000 to Naveed and Javed in exchange for her. Later, Hazrat Ali agreed to hand her over but on the condition that she would be married to him.

“She is the eldest of our four children,” said Qari. “Her mother was continuously crying; she couldn’t eat and sleep until Iqra was brought back home.”

After the girl was brought back , Qari Naveed filed an application with Bhara Kahu police against the four men for kidnapping her daughter. But he claimed that the police did not entertain his complaint.

“I had to go to court because the police refused to register an FIR against the men,” said Iqra’s father. On August 26, the court directed the police to register an FIR against the accused men and arrest them at the earliest. However, the police registered the FIR on September 16 while taking a stance that they were investigating the facts to ascertain whether the girl was indeed kidnapped.

“It appeared that she had eloped with Naveed at her own will,” said the investigation officer. “We were investigating the matter before registering the FIR so no one gets falsely indicted.”

Police also said that the two parties had earlier reached reconciliation out of court, a claim rejected by the father. “There was no reconciliation. If there was one, why don’t they produce the agreement,” Qari Naveed said.

He said he had also lodged a complaint with the DSP of the area, who directed the police to arrest the accused. “The police are not arresting them. Instead, they are keeping our child away from us in Darul-Aman. We are worried about her security there,” said Iqra’s father.

Although, the girl has not complained, the medical and DNA tests will confirm if she was raped or not.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2010.