Home at last: Recovered girls handed over to their parents

Welcome ceremony held for girls upon their return to Bajaur Agency

KHAR/ PESHAWAR: The 20 girls recovered from a house in Karachi earlier this week arrived in Peshawar on Saturday morning accompanied by Bajaur Agency’s Assistant Political Agent Fayaz Sherpao.

Upon their arrival, the girls were received by several senior officials, including Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Amjad Ali Khan and Fata Additional Chief Secretary Muhammad Azam Khan. Azam Khan, on behalf of K-P Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, distributed gifts among the girls who later left for Bajaur Agency.

While talking to media, Azam said, “We have started mapping all seminaries in Fata under special directives from the K-P governor.” He told reporters that the female teacher allegedly involved in the incident belonged to Jandool, Upper Dir.

“We have arrested her relative Qari Samiullah from Bajaur and have started investigations into the matter.” Azam appealed the parents in Fata to not send their children with unreliable people for religious education.

Other Fata officials called for enhancing the region’s budget, especially for education, so that girls and boys from tribal areas are provided adequate facilities. They said Fata’s entire budget was smaller than the budget of a single K-P government department.

A welcome ceremony was held when these girls reached the agency headquarter Khar later in the day. It was attended by the parents of the girls, tribal elders and officials of the political administration. The political agent of Bajaur Agency, Yahya Akhunzada, said that they have handed over the girls to their parents in the presence of tribal elders.

In Bajaur, certain parents confirmed that they couldn’t afford the education expenses of their children and were forced, as such, to send them to seminaries.

Haji Rahman, a resident of Bajaur Agency, told The Express Tribune that he had sent his two girls to Karachi to receive religious education. He added that he sent his kids to a faraway city because there were no arrangements in the agency for such an education.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2014.