KARACHI: A judicial magistrate handed over the three Baloch girls who were kidnapped on Sept 7 in an Azizabad locality to their parents as two of them on Wednesday deposed that they were forcibly married off after being abducted.

Saddam Hussain Chakrani and Niaz Jatoi along with their absconding accomplices have been booked for allegedly kidnapping Surat, her cousin Sabina and aunt Nagina in Bhangoria Goth last month.

The police arrested the two suspects, Saddam and Niaz, a couple of weeks after the abduction and recovered the captives in Sukkur on Monday just hours after the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan raised the issue at its meeting and sent letters to the chief minister and law enforcement agencies.

JM informed about their forced marriages

On Wednesday, the police produced the girls before the court of a judicial magistrate (central) as their family members were standing in the courtroom with TV cameras trained on them from outside. The youngest among them kept staring at the people around her, while the other two had their faces covered. As the proceedings began at around 10:30am, one of the girls broke down. The investigating officer then moved an application in the court, with a request to record their statements under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code.

Judicial Magistrate Zaheer Ahmed recorded the testimonies of Surat and Nagina, while the statement of the youngest girl, Sabina, could not be recorded. The court said she neither understood the questions nor replied to them intelligently.

While recording her statement, Surat testified that she along with her aunt, Nagina, and cousin, Sabina, were going to a bookshop on Sept 7 when Saddam met them on their way. He offered them water, she said, adding that they became unconscious after consuming it. When they gained consciousness, they found themselves detained in a room, Surat said. She also deposed that Imam Bux Jatoi and Saleem Jatoi along with an unidentified man and a woman were present around them in the room where they had been detained.

She informed the court that on Sept 16, she and Nagina were forcibly married off to Saleem Jatoi and Imam Bux Jatoi, respectively. Later, she added, the police recovered them.

Nagina also recorded a similar statement before the judicial magistrate deposing that she was willing to go with her parents. Subsequently, the court handed over the girls to their parents.

The judicial magistrate then directed the IO to produce the detained suspects, Saddam and Niaz, on Oct 26 for cross-examination.

According to the prosecution, the suspects took the girls to Shikarpur after their abduction and the police arrested Saddam on Sept 21.

During interrogation, he confessed to his involvement in the case and provided information about Niaz, who was later apprehended. Both suspects were then remanded in prison.

According to the remand papers, Surat, Nagina and Sabina were aged 14, 10, and 7, respectively, while as per their statements recorded before the judicial magistrate Nagina was 19, Surat 17 and Sabina was 10. A senior official, who was present in the court when the statement of Nagina was being recorded, said: “We don’t have the required apparatus to ascertain the exact age of the girls. There’s not much we can do about it.”

Giving some details of the case, the IO at the Sukkur Airport police station, ASI Mohammad Khan, claimed: “We found the girls while patrolling a street on Monday evening. The girls were crying and asked for help. They said they were facing threats from their ‘husband’s family’ and wanted us to take them back to their parents. They didn’t know the name of their husbands or the name of their in-laws.”

The police team, which went from Karachi to Sukkur, complained that they were not supported by the police in Sukkur and were “left on their own” to connect the dots. When IO Mohammad Khan was asked about it, he said: “We did everything that the court asked us to do.”

A case (FIR No 261/2015) was lodged at the Azizabad police station under Sections 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the age of 10), 365-B (kidnapping or abducting or inducing a woman to compel her for marriage, etc.) and 34 (common intention) of Pakistan Penal Code.

Saleem Jatoi, Imam Bux Jatoi, Hidayatullah Jatoi and Sherdil Jatoi are absconding accused in the case.

Senior HRCP activist Abdul Hayee said: “This is just one case that came up and got attention. The fact is that there is human trafficking taking place in Sindh, just as it is happening in other provinces, which is affecting people from all communities.”

About the age of the girls, Sindh HRCP vice chairman Asad Iqbal Butt said: “A woman can be aged 50 and that won’t stop the kidnappings and forced marriages. The judge in this case can easily refer them to a medical board at any hospital to ascertain their age ... I’m glad the girls were reunited with their families.”

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2015

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