KARACHI, Aug 24: The Sindh High Court has directed the provincial police chief to appoint a senior police officer to continue the investigation into the kidnapping of a 17-year-old girl by a gang of burqa-clad women last month as the police had closed the probe into the matter after filing a report under the relevant law.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam was seized with the petition of Khalid Ahmed, a resident of Ghazi Town, Malir City, whose teenage daughter was kidnapped while she along with her mother and elder sister was shopping at a local market near her house.

He pointed out that according to the police and media reports young girls and women were being kidnapped in parts of the city and the province and later victims were forced into prostitution.

The petitioner, represented by Advocate Qadir Hussain Khan, also recalled the recent recovery of two young kidnapped girls in the interior of Sindh and asked the court to direct the respondents to make serious efforts to recover his daughter and curb the menace.

The petitioner stated that he lodged an FIR against unknown woman kidnappers but the police made no efforts to trace his daughter and the culprits.

He impleaded the interior secretary, home secretary, director general of Rangers, the investigation officer of the case, the Malir City SHO and others as respondents. Later, the police filed a report, commonly known as A-Class report, in the trial court stating that efforts were made to trace the culprits and recover the victim girl, but no clue to them was so far found.

The bench expressed displeasure over the conduct of the police in the investigation into the kidnapping of the young girl and observed that the police had conventionally filed a report for keeping the case dormant until the arrest of the culprits.

The bench directed the Sindh prosecutor office to continue monitoring of the progress and investigation in such cases and “merely filing report of A-class should not be considered conclusion of the investigation for the closure of the case”.

“Let the prosecutor general informed the court as to the mechanism for continued investigation and interrogation in such cases on the next date,” the court ordered.

The court also directed the inspector general of police to appoint a senior police officer for conducting an inquiry into the case and submit the progress report on the next date to be fixed by the court’s office later.