Paying off a debt: Police bring back 26 missing girls

The girls, sent to study at madrassa near Guru Mandir by parents from Bajaur Agency, were in custody to settle a debt

KARACHI:

There were 26 Barbie dolls in the hands of 26 little girls who sat huddled in the corner of a large meeting room at the office of the SSP Central. They sat there with their rosy red cheeks stained with tears waiting for their parents and other relatives to come and take them.

These little girls were upset. "I want to see my mother," said Safa*, one of the youngest girls in the room. "Will the police put me in jail?" To comfort the girls, the police had given them toys, chips, chicken biryani and mango juice.



These girls went missing three days ago from a madrassa and no one had any idea where they went. Their parents found out about their disappearance in the earlier hours of Wednesday morning. The girls had been sent to study at the madrassa located on Jamshed Road near Guru Mandir by their parents who reside in Bajaur Agency. The only relatives the girls had in the city were aunts and uncles.

The lady, a woman who the girls refer to as Baji, owned the madrassa ran it like a boarding school where they girls used to live. She had been running the unregistered madrassa from home for years. According to the police, they recovered the girls from a house in Liaquatabad-C at 2am on Wednesday.

Three days ago the owner of the madrassa took the girls to another lady's house in order to pay her debt. They claimed that Baji had taken the girls to Saira's house as the latter had taken a loan from her and it was time to pay up. Police claim that Baji, who some people have identified as Humaira, had lent some money to Saira and had said that the debt would be repaid if she took care of the girls.

Safa and her friends, Ayesha and Neha, sat together in a row at the SSP's office after they were recovered. They were three of the 26 girls between the ages of six and 12, dressed in shalwar kameez and bright pink shawls wrapped around their head and shoulders.

"We were reading when Baji told us to keep our books away and follow her," said Safa's classmate Rafia. "There were rickshaws waiting for us outside the madrassa. The next thing we knew was that we stopped outside a house and then we couldn't find Baji anywhere."

Unfortunately for the police, the girls could only understand Pashto and did not know the name of the seminary they had been living at or the name of the woman who they had been living with.



"We spent the last couple of days just talking and gossiping with each other," said Salima. "We were kept hungry for two days. Baji told us the lady would feed us but she didn't. Another lady who lived nearby brought us some rice." She added that they were made to sleep on the floor and had no idea why their Baji had left them there.

Neighbour Jamshed and his wife Jehan claim that they saw two women and little girls dressed in pink walk into the house located in Liaquatabad. "We came out to see what was happening," said Jamshed. "The girls walked into Saira's house and then the women left." He added that it was later that they learnt the girls had been brought there from a madrassa.

While talking to The Express Tribune, he said that they took food for the children as Saira and her husband had no money to feed so many children. Neighbours ended up informing the police about the girls the following evening and they arrived at the residence on Wednesday.

"We want our children back," said Yosuf Khan, who had two sisters studying at the madrassa. "I don't know what happened. My daughter was studying at the madrassa for three years," said Noor Khan. 

*Names have been changed to protect identities

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2014.