LAHORE, Aug 29: Punjab Child Protection Bureau on Monday returned the three out of four girls, who had been found abandoned at the Data Ganj Bukhsh shrine on Aug 21, to their parents.

According to an earlier handout issued by the bureau, the girls had claimed to be sisters who had been abandoned at the shrine by their father, as he could not afford to pay the rent of the house they had been living in. They were taken in custody by the bureau’s Open Reception Centre.

However, the latest bureau press release, issued on Tuesday, said the father of the girls who approached the PCPB after learning about them through print and electronic media reports, said they had been whisked away by their aunt, Shakila, from his house. Shakila, introducing herself as the eldest sister of the three minor girls, concocted the whole story for unknown reasons.

He thanked the bureau for taking care of his daughters, saying that otherwise they could have met some tragedy. —Staff Reporter