New beginning: Child kidnapped 12 years ago returns

Police are looking for his family.

BAHAWALPUR:

A boy, who says he was kidnapped 12 years ago, returned to Sadiqabad on Monday.

Police are trying to find his family.

Police said the boy, who calls himself Sunny, told them that he had been kidnapped from a religious seminary near Punjab cinema.

The boy, in his early 20s, said he had been taken to tribal areas where the kidnappers forced him into labour. He said they broke one of his legs and forced him into beggary.

He said he had tried several times to escape, but was caught. He said the group of men he worked for had threatened to burn him with acid if he again tried to run away.

He said they had already burned several parts of his body with acid.

He said there were 40 other boys and young men in their captivity. He said 25 of them, including him, made a plan to escape. He said they attacked the gunman watching over them on Sunday and managed to flee.

He said he went to Peshawar, from where he went to Faisalabad and then to Machi Goth in Sadiqabad.

He told police that his father’s name was Muhammad Zulfiqar and his mother’s Shabana Bibi.

He said at the time he was kidnapped, his family had lived near the chimneys of Fauji Fertiliser Company and Sugar Mills.

Police said they looked for his family, but did not find anyone who could recognise him. They said they had formed a team to locate his family and investigate his claims.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2013.