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Today's Paper | May 08, 2024

Updated 05 Feb, 2017 03:28pm

4-year-old trafficked by father to India returns to Pakistan

A minor taken forcibly by his father to India was repatriated to Pakistan by Indian authorities Saturday evening.

The child, Iftikhar Ahmed, was received at the Wagah border crossing by Pakistani officials, who promptly handed over his custody to his mother.

In an April 2016 blog post on its website, the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust reported that the alleged abductor, Gulzar Ahmed, was a 'non-biological' father of Iftikhar Ahmad.

On March 12, 2016, Gulzar allegedly kidnapped and trafficked the boy to India on a Pakistani Passport.Gulzar was arrested by in Srinagar along with Iftikhar.

The boy spent a few nights in a police lockup, the Ansar Burney Trust said. "Instead of handing the boy’s custody to Pakistan High Commission [in] New Delhi, the Indian police illegally and unlawfully handed him to the family of the abductor/human trafficker without any justification," the post read.

An Indian court, acting on a petition, had ordered in May 2016 that the child be returned to his mother. Pakistani authorities in India had initiated the repatriation process soon after.

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