RAWALPINDI: Happiness of the parents of a three-year-old girl, who was kidnapped from outside her house in Ratta Amral, knew no bounds when they were reunited with her after 15 months on Tuesday.

A couple from Lahore has also been arrested for allegedly abducting Taj Mina Bibi in March 2022 when the girl was aged three.

Police said after the girl was kidnapped, an FIR was registered on the complaint of her father, Ajab Khan and an investigation launched.

The recovery of the missing girl came about after a family who lived on the first floor of the house where the alleged kidnappers lived in Lahore observed that she did not resemble with the four sons of the couple. The family complained to Manawa police in Lahore about a week after she was kidnapped and taken there.

Following the complaint, the Lahore police recovered the girl and handed her over to the Child Protection Bureau (CPB) instead of investigating the couple and taking legal action against them. All this time, the girl remained in the bureau.

The kidnapping case, which had apparently been closed, was reopened on the directives of Regional Police Officer (RPO) Rawalpindi Syed Khuram Ali.

Following the RPO’s directives, SHO Ratta Amral Mohammad Riaz and his team restarted the investigation into the case.

Finally, the police contacted the CPB and Lahore police which led to the tracing of the couple who said they had kidnapped the girl. The police contacted the girl’s parents and their DNA tests were conducted on the directives of the court which led to the reunification of the girl with her parents.

The girl was handed over to her parents by City Police Officer Khalid Hamdani at his office.

Talking to Dawn, Ajab Khan, who is a labourer, said his house was packed with relatives and people from the neighbourhood who had come to congratulate him and his wife on the recovery of their daughter.

“I saw my daughter for the first time since her kidnapping 16 days ago when we were called for a DNA test in Lahore. On seeing us, she screamed Baba with excitement and hugged me,” Ajab Khan said.

“When I asked her who was I, she immediately replied my Baba. She insisted on going with her mother when we met her two weeks ago for a DNA test,” Ajab Khan said.

The girl’s father said ever since his daughter went missing, neither he nor his wife spent a day in peace or ate properly.

“I spent thousands of rupees on traveling to Lahore, Faisalabad, and even Karachi with the police in search of my daughter,” he said, adding that “as the days passed, hopes of finding her started to fade”.

“We just wanted to find her in any case; I am thankful to Allah that I have been able to find my daughter alive,” Ajab Khan added.

When asked whether the Lahore police had contacted him after they recovered the girl from the accused’s house, he said he was never contacted nor were the kidnappers detained.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2023