LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Thursday remanded five men in police custody and sent two women to jail on judicial remand on the charges of kidnapping four minor girls from Lahore’s Hanjarwal area for ‘immoral activities’.

Police recovered the girls from Sahiwal after arresting suspects Qasim Ali, Shahzad and his wife Naeem Shahzad, Asif and his wife, and Shaukat Ali. They also presented the girls before the court.

Magistrate Nauman Nasir directed the investigating officer to produce the girls again on Aug 6 (today) for their statements and also produce the suspects. The magistrate also ordered police to get the medical examination of the girls conducted.

Earlier, the IO told the court that the custody of the suspects was required for further interrogation and to trace other members of their gang.

The magistrate allowed police the physical remand of the men for four days and sent the women suspects on judicial remand.

Police failure to send girls to CPWB embarrasses DIG

The Hanjarwal police registered a case on the complaint of Irfan Ali, the father of Anam, 10, and Kinza, 11. He alleged that her daughters, along with Pinki, 14, and Ayesha, 8, the daughters of his neighbour, were kidnapped.

Meanwhile, DIG Investigation Shariq Jamal faced embarrassment during a press conference on Thursday when asked why the girls recovered from Sahiwal were forced to spend night in a Lahore police station where many other criminals were locked up.

The DIG made his appearance before the media to take credit of recovering the girls from the custody of the suspects. It was the second press conference of a senior police officer after recovering the kidnapped girls from the custody of a rickshaw driver. A day earlier, Sahiwal District Police Officer Kashif Aslam held a media conference in his district sharing details as to how the girls were brought from Lahore to Sahiwal by the prime accused, a rickshaw driver.

The DPO told media persons that the girls were handed over to the Lahore police team which had arrived in Sahiwal to take custody. The Hanjarwal police later took the minor girls to the police station and forced them to spend night there instead of handing over them to the CPWB.

During the press conference, the DIG faced criticism when the media persons raised question as to why the minor girls were kept in the police station the whole night instead of shifting them to the bureau. He also faced some tough queries about police failure to take the girls to hospital on Wednesday for medical examination.

Shariq Jamal, however, failed to answer why the girls were kept in the police station in the presence of other criminals. He insisted on highlighting the police performance for resolving the kidnap case of the girls.

Punjab Child Protection and Welfare Bureau chairperson Sara Ahmad also clarified her position saying that she was told on Wednesday night by the police officers that the girls were being handed over to the Bureau.

Speaking to the media, she expressed her concern over sending the minor girls to the police station. The Bureau, she said, was in contact with the girls and the police.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2021