HYDERABAD, May 1: Parents of an eight-year-old girl, Momil, who was kidnapped by two persons on Feb 6 from Allahdad Chand Goth and later abandoned in a nearby lane, have sought protection from the police harassment.
Speaking at a news conference at the local press club here on Thursday, Khair Mohammad Khawar Baloch and his wife Ms Zubaida Begum urged the authorities to arrest the culprits, saying that they were also being threatened by the accused.
Describing their mental agony, both the husband and wife told journalists that their daughter had gone to attend a Mehndi ceremony on Feb 6 from where she was kidnapped at around 2am by Shafqat and Raheel.
They said that both the accused had taken their daughter to Qasimabad on a motorcycle where she was tortured and later abandoned in a nearby lane.
When they approached Shafqat’s father, Naib Nazim of the union council No15, he humiliated them by offering Rs500 and tried to hush up the matter, adding that they had refused the money they were offered.
Under the instructions of the same Naib Nazim, they said, officials at the Phulleli police station had refused to register an FIR in this regard.
They said that the police was forced to register their FIR only after the people of the locality had staged a protest demonstration outside the Hyderabad press club.
Accusing the SHO of the police station concerned of being biassed towards the accused, they said that SHO Khawar Gul had taken a bribe from the accused and had deliberately weakened their case.
They said that the two accused were arrested by the investigating officer, Sharif Khoso, after applying relevant sections of the law. However, they also accused the investigating officer of taking bribe to release the culprits and dispose of the case under Section 169 of the CrPC on grounds of insufficient evidence.
Later, they said that the additional IG, Hyderabad Region, Abdur Rauf Yousufzai and the AIG, Investigation, Dr Sain Rakhyo Meerani, had transferred the case to the DPO Badin, who had asked Haji Talib Hussain Arain, the SDPO, Matli, to reinvestigate the case and recommended departmental inquiry against the two sub- inspectors.
They said that the case was finally challaned and non- bailable warrants of arrest were issued by the honourable court.
Accusing some of the police officers of extending help to the accused, the girl’s parents said that they had provided them an opportunity to seek bail before arrest.
Parents of the girl, Momil, who was also present on the occasion, appealed to the senior police officer to depute honest officer to arrest the accused as had been ordered by the honourable court.
They also urged the chief justice of the Sindh High Court as well as the district and sessions judge, Hyderabad, to take suo moto action in this connection, saying that the accused were dangerous and were threatening them of dire consequences.