A sigh of relief for ‘accused’

Published January 26, 2007

SIALKOT, Jan 25: A local court on Thursday granted bail to an accused charged with abducting a landlord’s daughter when the victim appeared before court after remaining missing for about one year.

Reports said that the Bajwat village landlord Muhammad Anwar’s daughter Fouzia Rani had mistakenly crossed over the working border in January 2006 where she was arrested by Indian security forces.

On suspicion of being abducted, the landlord had a case registered against Riaz Ahmad and his accomplices at Phooklaiyaan police station in August 2006. Although the police continued investigation, the nominated accused was luckily not arrested.

A couple of months back, the landlord learnt that his daughter was under the custody of the Indian Border Security Force for illegally entering into India.

The landlord informed the Sialkot DPO about the situation who contacted the Punjab Home Department, which sought an active cooperation of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Islamabad.

The ministry immediately contacted the Indian foreign ministry, on whose intervention, the Indian BSF recently handed over the girl to Pakistani security forces.

On Wednesday, the girl appeared before court and informed the judge that the nominated accused and his accomplices had no hands in her abduction as she had crossed over the border by mistake about a year back.

She further informed the judge that an Indian court had also handed her down a three-month rigorous imprisonment for illegally entering into their territory.

After her statement, the court confirmed the bail of the nominated accused as the abduction case proved to be wrong.