SUKKUR, July 17: Four women and a girl reportedly kidnapped from different towns of Sindh were rescued in a raid carried out by the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) personnel of Jacobabad district, it was claimed on Wednesday.

The CIA also claimed to have arrested a man, said to be involved in the kidnappings, on Tuesday evening.

The raid was conducted on a directive issued by Jacobabad District and Sessions Judge Amjad Ali Bhoyo.

Applicant Senghar Mallah had earlier approached the Tando Allahyar district and sessions judge submitting that her two daughters, Ms Saeeda and Ms Hawwa, had been kidnapped and taken to Jacobabad.

The judge wrote a letter to his counterpart in Jacobabad who issued a directive to the official in-charge of the CIA in the town for the rescue of the victims.

A raid was carried out by two CIA sub-inspectors, Shahnawaz Khoso and Ali Mardan Brohi, on a house in Jan Mohammad Talani Colony within the jurisdiction of the Saddar police station and found Ms Saeeda kept in the house. Four other women and a six-year-old girl, said to be kidnapped from different towns, were also found kept there, the raiding party claimed.

The five victims were identified as Ms Bibi, wife of Abdul Hakeem Syed, a resident of Kotri, Ms Zaibun-Nissa, wife of Mohammad Siddique Solangi, a resident of Hyderabad, and Ms Nasreen, wife of Sikander Ali Qambrani, a resident of Bhit Shah, along with her six-year-old daughter, Samreen.

The CIA police arrested Ali Khan Mastoi on charges of kidnapping of and trafficking in women. After interrogation at the CIA Centre, Jacobabad, the suspect and the rescued women were handed over to the Saddar police for further investigation.

The suspect and the victims were also presented to the media.

While the suspect denied the kidnapping charge, the rescued women, Ms Saeeda and Ms Zaibun-Nissa, told the media that Mastoi had offered them assistance in matrimonial issues and kept them in the house, where they were intoxicated.

They said he intended to sell them away to his clients in the racket. “There were two other women, including Ms Hawwa, with us in this house but both of them have disappeared. We fear that they have been sold away,” the women said.

On his part, Mastoi told the media that he had not kidnapped the women but provided them with shelter. He said he had been trapped and falsely implicated in the case.

The rescued women and girl were produced in the court of the First Sessions Judge, Jacobabad, Ramesh Lal, who directed the Saddar police to hand them over to their families.

No FIR of the victims’ kidnapping was registered at any police station but the judge has asked the CIA police to investigate the matter and register an FIR against the culprit(s) if a case is made out.

The CIA carried out the raid on a search warrant issued by the Jacobabad court for the recovery of the alleged victims.