Custody battle: Kidnapping accused granted pre-arrest bail

The ‘kidnapped’ children tell the court they want to live with their aunts.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Friday granted pre-arrest bail to two women in a kidnapping case.

The case had been registered by their sister-in-law who accused them of illegally detaining her four children.

Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik granted the bail when the children appeared before the court and said that they had not been kidnapped and that they wanted to live with their paternal aunts.

Syeda Hamida Anwar Gilani and Syeda Farzana Anwar Gilani had filed a pre-arrest bail application following an FIR registered at Islampura police station their sister-in-law Syeda Asia Gilani.

She had accused them of illegally detaining her children Syeda Tazeen Gilani, 11, Syeda Maha Gilani, 10, Syeda Hijab Batool, 6, and Syed Ali Gilani , 14, after the death of her husband Syed Azhar Gilani, a clerk in the Education Department.

The counsel for the petitioners told the court that Azhar Gilani had been bedridden three years before his death last month.

He said Asia Gilani left him to live with her parents.

He said his sisters had filed a case for custody of the children.

He said Asia Gilani had filed a statement that she had no objection to children living with their aunts.

He said now Asia Gilani wanted her children back so she could avail the benefits from the Education Department.

Asia Gilani’s counsel said Hamida and Farzana had forced her to leave their house by beating her and not giving her food.

She said Asia Gilani had never consented to forgoing custody of her children.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2013.