TIMERGARA, June 22: Contrary to police claim, the nine-year-old girl, allegedly kidnapped by militants for a suicide attack on a security checkpost, has not been handed over to her family, according to her relatives.

The real name of the girl is Kainat and not Suhana Javed, as mentioned by police.

The father of the girl, Mohammad Afzal, who is paralysed and has been on a wheelchair for years, told a group of visiting journalists on Wednesday at his house in Hajiabad that Kainat had not been handed over to them so far.

He said that his daughter left home on Monday for school where, according to her teachers, she was present for some time but disappeared later.

“A relative informed us from Saudi Arabia by telephone that Kianat was in the custody of security forces,” he said, adding that later the family contacted security forces and police at Balambat to be told that the girl would soon reach home.

“But so far she has not been returned,” he said.

On the other hand District Police Officer Saleem Marwat claimed on Tuesday that the girl had been handed over to her family.

Talking to Dawn, he said that owing to security reasons family details could not be disclosed. Suhana (Kainat), according to her statement to the media on Monday, had managed to escape from the custody of her captors, who wanted to turn her into a suicide bomber.

In the statement, she claimed that she belonged to Peshawar and was forced to wear a suicide jacket to target a security checkpost in Islam Darra area of Dir.

“The girl misled not only us but also the media by telling a lie about her whereabouts,” the DPO said, adding that early investigation suggested that she was a local. “She does not belong to Peshawar that is what I can tell you,” he told this scribe.

An official of Frontier Corps also said that security forces had handed the girl to police to take her to her family.

The locals told journalists that the girl belonged to Dir Lower and her home was not far away from the area where she was recovered. However, the DPO said that recovery of the suicide

jacket from the spot and its relevance to the girl was correct.

“Provincial Minister for Social Welfare Sitara Ayaz had asked security forces on Tuesday to give the girl into custody of police women, however, after tracing the family she was handed over to it,” another source in police told Dawn.