Several more girls still in influential people’s custody

The kidnapped Baloch girls speak out against their kidnappers

KARACHI: The recovered Baloch girls have claimed that there are several others girls still in the custody of the influential people living in remote areas of Shikarpur district.

The three girls — Surat, 14, Nagina, 10, and seven-year-old Sabina — went missing from Bhangoria Goth in Azizabad on September 7. They were recovered on October 19 from Sukkur and were handed over to their parents on court orders.



"There were other girls too," Surat told The Express Tribune. Recalling the time when she was held by the kidnappers, the frightened girl said that no one, not even the police, can access such a place if someone is kept in the jungle.

The girls, their parents and the tribal elders visited Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid Sindh chapter president Haleem Adil Sheikh on Thursday, to thank him for his help in recovering the missing girls. Surat said that her relatives and the girls who lived in her area, used to fetch potable water from a plot near her house. She claimed that the kidnappers, Saddam and Saleem, abducted them when they went to get water from there. The kidnappers allegedly offered them a beverage to drink. "We were in a jungle after a few hours," she narrated.

The girls were handed over to another party, who took them to a remote area after crossing Indus River. "I was weeping all the time and pleading them to send me back to my family, but they never listened to me," said the youngest girl, Sabina.



Surat and Nagina were married to Saleem Jatoi and Imam Bux Jatoi, respectively, on September 16 and a Nikkah Khuwan was called for that, the girls claimed. "They didn't torture us but kept us under tight security," said Nagina, adding that their captors had weapons and always used abusive language. There was only one woman, and she was called Waderi, Surat said, adding that the kidnappers mostly spoke in Sindhi.

Surat's mother, Safoora, could not believe her girls have come back. "The girls are still in a state of trauma and are scared because of the whole situation they experienced in the jungle for more than 40 days," she said, adding that Surat and Sabina will rejoin their school soon.

According to Safoora's cousin, Ramazan, the Shikarpur police did not cooperate with them. "The safe return is a miracle and it is not because of the police but due to the pressure that was built up by the media," he claimed.



"It [girls' kidnapping] is a case of women trafficking," PML-Q leader said. "Daughters of poor parents are kidnapped and sold in these areas, and no one can reach these influential persons." Sheikh further said that many political leaders also support these kidnappers involved in human trafficking.

The girls disclosed that an influential man came along with two police vans to the home where they were kept. "He talked to the men and then brought us to Sukkur," Nagina said, adding that they were then told to go home.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2015.