Recovered Baloch girls handed over to parents

The three girls were allegedly kidnapped and forcibly married

KARACHI: A district and sessions court handed over on Wednesday three Baloch girls, abducted from Azizabad, Karachi, last month, to their parents as two of them deposed that they were forcibly married to elder men after being kidnapped.

The three girls, Surat, 14, Nagina,10, and Sabina,7, were recovered from Sukkur on October 19 as investigators traced their whereabouts on leads given by two suspects, Saddam and Niaz, held in connection with the kidnapping. The girls had gone missing from near their house in Bhangoria Goth in the first week of September. The following week, the police arrested Saddam and Niaz on suspicion of their involvement.

On Wednesday, the police presented the girls before District Central judicial magistrate Zaheer Ahmed, who allowed  Surat and Nagina to record their statements.

Surat testified that, on September 7, she, along with her aunt, Nagina, and cousin, Sabina, was going to a bookshop when they met Saddam, who offered them some water, which they drank and fell unconscious. When they regained consciousness, they found themselves locked in a room. She deposed that Imam Bux Jatoi and Saleem Jatoi along with an unknown man and woman were present around them in the room.

Later, on September 16, she and Nagina were forcibly married to Saleem and Imam Bux, respectively. Nagina also recorded a similar statement.

Both the girls expressed their wish to go along with their parents, which the judge allowed. The court directed the IO to produce the suspects on October 26 for a cross examination.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2015.