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Friday March 29, 2024

Police put women trafficking case on backburner?

By Fakhar Durrani
March 28, 2017

ISLAMABAD: Anam, a seven-year-old girl, was happy that her mother will soon be back as the Chief Justice of Pakistan had taken notice of her mother’s abduction but she's losing hope as the police have deliberately put the case on the back burner.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar took suo moto notice of a story published in The News on February 24, 2017 about a gang reportedly involved in women trafficking, sex slavery and fake marriages.

It is March 28 now but the police are yet to recover the abducted woman despite passage of more than a month by ignoring the Supreme Court directives. The same police which took just 20 hours to arrest main characters of the alleged gang has now set the case aside and failed to recover the abducted woman despite having almost all the main characters of the gang in their custody.

Muhammad Arshed while talking to The News said he was hopeful that soon his wife will come back as the country’s highest court had taken notice of her abduction. However, it seems the police have successfully swept the case under the carpet, he commented.

“Every day after returning from my work I visit the police station to know if they had made any development regarding Farzana’s recovery as I know the first question my daughters would ask is about their mother. I cannot face them now and I cannot give them fake hopes anymore. Sometimes, I feel that I should commit suicide in front of the Supreme Court because I cannot face my daughters,” said Mr. Arshed.

“Can anyone imagine that I have to leave my two daughters alone back home for the whole day because without working I cannot feed them. Life has become miserable for me as well as for my daughters. I feed my daughters after returning from work and most of them go to sleep without eating anything when I reach home,” commented Arshed.

Talking about the police response, Arshed claims everyday police gives him a new date for Farzana’s recovery. The investigation officer has informed that they are still negotiating with the abductor and soon she will be recovered, informed Arshed.

CPO Rawalpindi was contacted but he was out of reach; however, last week when he was approached he said they were still in process of negotiation and hopefully the lady (Farzana) will be back soon.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Punjab Police had submitted their report to the Supreme Court claiming that no gang was involved in women trafficking.  The police also claimed that Farzana was part of the gang and was already involved in looting people. However, contrary to the police claims, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police started investigations into the matter and registered two cases of missing women against the same gang.