KARACHI: Despite the passage of more than a month, police have been unable to ascertain the whereabouts of a missing housemaid, as her father fears that she was either killed or sold by her employer, said to be associated with an influential pir family.

The teenage girl, Aqsa Chandio, worked as a domestic helper at an apartment on Seaview and had gone missing on Aug 15. Two days later, on Aug 17, Darakhshan police registered an FIR under Section 365-B (Kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel for marriage etc.) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of her father, Ayaz Chandio.

Talking to Sindhi news channel Times, the girl’s father said he feared that his daughter had either been killed or sold by the woman employer.

He said he was told by his daughter’s employer that she had gone missing from their house in DHA. When he arrived in Karachi from Khairpur, he claimed he was detained at the family’s house for two days.

Teenager was employed as a housemaid at the Karachi apartment of an influential family

He said their neighbours told him that they used to hear the cries and screams of the girl almost on a daily basis at night-time. He said that when he raised the issue before the employer’s brother, he also threatened him with dire consequences and warned him that if he raised this issue, he would not be able to live in his native village, Pir Jo Goth.

Mr Chandio made an emotional appeal to police authorities to find his missing daughter, complaining that they police were not taking the case seriously.

Meanwhile, DIG-South Syed Asad Raza said that Aqsa, 16, was kidnapped by unknown person(s) from the Seaview apartment on Aug 15.

He said that police had constituted a special team, questioned some suspects and some arrests were expected very soon.

He said investigators had come to know that the girl was secretly using a mobile phone, which made her employers furious when they found out about it. The employer then called the girl’s father, but before his arrival, the girl had left the premises.

The DIG said that her mobile phone was in the custody of the police and they were working on it.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2023