KARACHI, March 17: Four of the 11 kidnapped children, recovered by the police on Friday and lodged at Edhi Child Home, were identified on Sunday by their parents, police and Edhi Foundation said.
Police sources said that a DNA test would be carried out of those who had claimed to be the parents of the children to match their chromosomes.
Abdul Sattar Edhi, founder of the Edhi Foundation, said out of 11 children four had been identified by their parents who had visited Edhi Child Home on Sunday. He said the police were informed and their test would be conducted to prove their claim.
DIG Investigation Fayyaz Leghari said three children were identified by Sajjad, resident of Bhittai Nagar.
Sajjad Masih identified his two sons — four-year-old Johnson and three-year-old Shahzul — and a one-year-old niece as Erum. Sajjad told the police that he and his wife wanted their children to be priest and his brother also wanted to make his daughter a nun. A neighbouring woman, Martha, had assured him that she knew someone who took children to the United States where children were made priests. Sajjad, a sweeper, handed over his two sons and a niece to Martha, who took away the children some eight months back. He wanted to know about his children’s well-being and when he contacted Martha, she did not give him a satisfactory reply.
He came to know about the kidnapped children through newspapers and reached Edhi Child Home where he identified his children.
Similarly, Javed Masih, also a sweeper and resident of Neelam Colony, identified his seven-month-old daughter. He told the police that he had five children and his wife was about to give birth to a child when a neighbouring woman, Maqbool, started regular visits to his house and insisted that Javed gave the would-be child to her for better education as her (Maqbool’s) daughter-in-law lived in the United States and had been childless for many years and she would take care of the child.
Javed said he was poor and had already five children. When his wife gave birth to a girl, he sold his daughter for Rs20,000 to Maqbool. At the time of handing over the girl to Maqbool, she was only eight days old. Javed said after some days his wife’s health became deteriorated that she wanted her daughter back. Javed contacted Maqbool, who said that the girl had been sent abroad.
Police sources said that among 13 passports, eight were of adults and three were of children. Samina and Iftekhar posed themselves as parents of these three children, the police sources said adding that the suspects were absconding and raids were being conducted to arrest them. Besides, the police were also looking for Martha and Maqbool.
Eleven kidnapped children were recovered on March 15 in a bungalow in Gulshan-i-Iqbal who were about to be smuggled Malta. The police also arrested eight suspects, including five women, who claimed they had adopted these children and completed all legal formalities for adoption.
However, the police said they recovered 13 passports from the possession of the suspects, which were issued from Hyderabad. Fake birth certificates of the children and some blank papers carrying stamps of attestation of Maltese foreign office were also recovered, the police added.
INQUIRY: Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro has taken serious notice of smuggling of infants from Karachi to Malta and ordered arrest of other members of the gang involved in human smuggling, adds APP.
He ordered a high-level probe into this matter and said that those involved in it should be taken to task.
The governor said that such cases demanded close cooperation between the police, public and government organizations.
