MULTAN, Jan 4: The four sisters of Jampur (Rajanpur district) who went missing some five months ago have finally been located in Rawalpindi where they were reportedly trying to stand on their own after being fed up with the “conservative values” of their family.
They were spotted by a crime reporter of an Islamabad-based Urdu daily some five days ago.
According to information gathered by this correspondent, the reporter learnt from an acquaintance that four girls were living independently in a small house in Satellite Town that came under the Sadiqabad police station area.
The reporter was in knowledge of the story of the ‘missing sisters’ due to a protest rally organized in the federal capital, first by the family of the girls and then by the relatives of all those who had been arrested for their suspected role in the disappearance of Abida (19), Rashida (18), Aimen (11) and Irum (six).
The reporter deputed few friends to watch the daily routine of the girls. When he was satisfied that the girls were the missing sisters of Jampur, he met them along with some of his female family members and motivated them to rejoin their parents.
On Thursday last, he informed their family in Jampur and asked them to reach Pindi. When the girls learnt about the arrival of their parents, they tried to leave the home but the reporter and his friends took control of the situation.
On Saturday, girls’ father Hafiz Ghulam Husain, brother Hafiz Ghulam Sabbir, a medical student, and his two classmates reached Rawalpindi where they held meetings with the girls who were fearing threat to their lives once they retuned to Jampur.
At this, the reporter sought written assurance from their father that no harm to the girls would be caused. After initial reluctance, Hafiz Ghulam Hasan gave a written statement for the security of his daughters.
The girls along with their father and brother left Rawalpindi by road at about 12.30 noon for Jampur on Saturday.
It was learnt that after leaving their home on Aug 3 last, the girls arrived in Islamabad where a taxi driver took them to an NGO office in Golrra Sharif. The NGO officials handed them over to the Rawalpindi branch of Edhi home.
The Edhi home people gave them in the custody of a women crisis centre of the Punjab Social Welfare department after keeping them for two days at home. The girls stayed at the crisis centre up to Nov 3 and finally rented a house in Satellite Town after giving a written statement to the centre authorities that now they wanted to live on their own.
In the meanwhile, Abida got a job in a travel agency in Rawalpindi while Rashida, who was married at the time of leaving Jampur, gave birth to a boy at the Rawalpindi General Hospital. These days Abida was trying to enrol Aimen and Irum with a school to continue their studies while Rashida was taking computer classes to get a job for her.
Abida reportedly told the reporter that her father and brother Ghulam Shabbir were used to torturing them over trivial matters. “Shabbir was against my college education but I wanted to stand on my feet otherwise I would be married to any elderly person as was done in the case of Rashida.”
She said they wanted to take breath out of the ‘tense environment’ of their family home. She claimed that she was also afraid of the future of her younger sisters besides her own while living with her parents.
When contacted the reporter who located the girls said that neither he nor the people he deputed to watch them for three days prior to contacting their family found anything objectionable regarding the daily routine and conduct of the girls.
Meanwhile, the Sadiqabad police of Rawalpindi have reportedly interrogated the taxi driver who dropped the girls at an NGO office in Golarra Sharif besides an official of the NGO.