PESHAWAR: The police informed the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday about their failure to trace a minor boy, who is at a centre of the custody row between his Kyrgyz mother and Pakistani father suspecting the man would have taken the child to Afghanistan.

Appearing before a bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, Swabi district police officer Jawed Iqbal said a call made by the father, Mohammad Zeb Khan, to his family members in Swabi was traced to Afghanistan.

The bench later fixed May 26 for the next hearing into a petition filed by the boy’s Kyrgyz mother, Aliyichieve Aijan, seeking custody of her son Mohammad Yousaf. It directed the police to make efforts for the early recovery of the boy.

Father took boy to Afghanistan, suspect police

The petitioner claims that a Pakistani national, Mohammad Zeb, who is a resident of Yaqoobi village in Swabi, had married her in Kirghizstan in 2005 and from that wedlock they were having three children, two sons and a daughter.

She claims that they had differences over certain issues following which Mohammad Zeb left her and also took away her seven year old son Mohammad Yousaf with him to Pakistan.

Despite repeated orders of the high court the police in Swabi district could not recover the boy.

The DPO said the police had searched for the boy, but could not trace him and his father. He said the police had received information that the boy was taken to Afghanistan through some illegal channels by his father.

He DPO said the police had also sought help from Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) but the record on Pak-Afghan border at Torkham transpired that the father had not adopted any legal route for shifting the boy to Afghanistan. He said the police had been trying their level best to recover the boy.

The IST secretary and head of consular section at Kyrgyz Embassy, Mr Esen Aksamaev, and a political consular, Mr Sagynbek Ibreav, also appeared before the bench.

The later stated that the Kyrgyz government appreciated the efforts of the high court for recovering the boy. However, he added that despite passage of around a year the police could not trace the boy.

He stated that the issue was very important to the Kyrgyz government and they had decided to raise it with the Pakistani government through diplomatic channels. He added that in this connection meeting would also be held with the foreign minister.

The bench assured the official that the issue was also important to the court and it had been trying to resolve it through all available means.

Advocate Mohammad Abdullah Khan appeared for the petitioner and stated that earlier a family court in Rawalpindi had issued orders to Mohammad Zeb to hand over the boy to the petitioner. However, he stated that instead of following the court orders Mohammad Zeb disappeared along with the child. He stated that Mohammad Yousaf was a Kyrgyz national and was illegally taken away from his country.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2016