By Salis bin Perwaiz

Karachi: Police on Thursday recovered three abducted girls during a raid on a house in the Saudabad area and arrested five suspects, including two women.

Those arrested by an investigation police team of South Zone-II were identified as Sohail Masih, Babar Masih, Hidayat Masih, Rukhsana and Fatima.

Arshad Kamal Kiyani, SSP Investigation of the South Zone, said the accused used to kidnap girls from different parts of the country and sold them for Rs80,000 to Rs100,000.

Faiza, one of the girls recovered during the raid, told the police that on the day of her abduction she had been retuning home when a stranger pointed a pistol to her head and forced her into a taxi where she passed out.

When she regained her consciousness she found herself in a room where Fatima and Rukhsana, the two women who are now under arrest, were present.

She added that the accused had deployed the two women to keep a watch on the kidnapped girls. She said the women threatened them with dire consequences if they attempted to escape.

SSP Kiyani gave a chronology of the events from the time the father of Faiza contacted the police till the successful police operation in which the girls were freed unharmed.

According to the police official, the father of 11-year-old Faiza reported to the police of the kidnapping of his daughter from Bizerta Lines in Saddar last November.

The complainant said he resided in Bizerta Lines and was a retired military official.

He said his daughter went out for buying some stuff on November 21 but did not return home for quiet some time, after which they started searching for her and asked shopkeepers and other people in the area if they had seen his daughter but in vain. Later, he went to the police to register an FIR.

During the course of initial investigations, no clue to Faiza was found, and the family expressed their reservations over the investigation officer of the Saddar police station. They submitted an appeal to the DIG South, Iqbal Mehmood, who transferred the case to the station investigation officer of Mehmoodabad.

Moreover, the girl’s father got an advert published in a local newspaper carrying the picture of his daughter and announcing a cash reward of Rs150,000 for anyone who could provide any lead in the case.

The investigators said that after the placement of the advert, the father of Faiza received a call from a stranger, who told him that his daughter had been in his captivity and that if he wanted his daughter back then he had to deposit 50 percent of the amount in a certain bank account.

The girl’s father deposited Rs70,000 in the given account online.

However, no further contact was made with the father of the girl for several days, who then told the police about the call from the stranger.

With this piece of information in their hands, the police managed to find the details of the account holder leading them to the city of Gujjar Khan in Punjab.

The investigation team of Mehmoodabad travelled to Gujjar Khan where they traced the person who had telephoned the father of the kidnapped girl.

The police later located the house of the accused and, after some resistance, arrested Ghulam Haider. During interrogation, Haider told the police that he had been a fraudster and defrauded the father of Faiza after seeing the advert. He denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of the girl.

The police then handed over the accused to the Gujjar Khan police and returned to Karachi.

SSP Kiyani said that after this incident the police told the girl’s father to coordinate with the police and inform them immediately of any calls or messages that he received. He was also told to keep his cellphone charged and switched on all the time.

During this period, the man received a missed call from an unknown number and immediately informed the investigation officer, who rushed to his house and called the number.

The call was attended by a woman who refused to tell the police her name and denied having made any calls. She switched off her cellphone when she was asked if there had been any girl child in her house who might have made the call.

The police then attempted to reach the number several times but none of their calls could get through because the cellphone remained switched off.

The police, however, managed to trace the last location from where the call had originated. With this information, the police team of the Investigation South Zone-II raided a house in the Saudabad area in Khokharapar and, after some resistance, arrested Sohail Masih, Babar Masih, Hidayat Masih, Rukhsana and Fatima.

During a search of the house they also recovered the three girls who had been locked inside a small room.

Source: The News

Date:2/18/2011