British girl missing for three years in Pakistan on way home
The image shows a member of the British police. — File photo/AP
LONDON: A six-year-old girl is on her way home to Britain more than three years after she was abducted by her father and taken to Pakistan, police said on Friday.
Atiya Anjum-Wilkinson disappeared in November 2009 after going to stay with her father, Razwan Ali Anjum.
The former insurance salesman told the girl’s mother, Gemma Wilkinson, that he was taking Atiya to Southport in northwest England but instead took her to Lahore.
He told his former partner that she was “never going to see Atiya again”.
Anjum is currently serving a prison sentence in Britain for refusing to reveal his daughter’s whereabouts despite a court order.
Just last month her 32-year-old mother launched a fresh appeal for information about her daughter.
But sources told Britain’s Press Association agency that Atiya had been found in Pakistan after new information had come to light.
Police said Atiya was due to arrive at Manchester Airport later Friday.
Anjum, who is in his late 20s, was given a fourth consecutive jail term by a High Court judge in April after he refused to reveal where his daughter was.
He indicated that Atiya was in Pakistan or Iran but said he did not know her exact whereabouts, a claim which the judge in the case said was “absurd”.
Another judge has previously said the case was “as bad a case of child abduction as I have encountered”.
It is thought Atiya was found after police issued a computer-generated image of what Atiya would look like now — a day before her sixth birthday in November.
Speaking then, her mother said: “It’s been an absolute nightmare. As to her whereabouts we know nothing. We’ve had no contact.
“I’m worrying every day, every single day. Everything is affected by it. When I close my eyes I see her.”
british government should change their policy on granting british citizenship and impose strict conditions on all immigrants arriving from third world countries, especially from pakistan.
Strange how you never hear cases where the mother takes the children and disappears…
I sure do hope that they extend his stay in jail forever and let him suffer for his Hypocrisy ……..
They criticize the West for immorality and lack of religious belief. Yet they want to migrate to the West and maintain their culture from which they ran.
What culture?
Supression?
Most people immigrate for economic reasons however when they realize they are losing their identity and culture after settling into their new environment, panic sets in and we see such tragedies.
I am glad her mother found her. As for the dad, let him spend some more time in jail.
The father stayed in England while he sent his daughter to Pakistan? He wants to live a good life there while sending his daughter to a fate which he himself staying overseas could not comprehend ?Such a person should be deported to Pakistan when his sentence is over.I am sure that are laws that can revoke a person’s citizenship provided one is not born in the country.
It is a case of dual legal systems.
Under sharia on separation father is the custodian automatically.
Under Common Law, custody goes to one with whom the child spent most time.