PESHAWAR: Twenty minor girls from Bajaur Agency, who were recovered along with 15 others from a house in Karachi, were sent home from Peshawar on Saturday morning.

After arrival at the Bacha Khan International Airport from Karachi, the girls were provided with an escort by the Bajaur Levies for security reasons.

Bajaur Agency assistant political agent Fayyaz Sherpao accompanied the girls first from Karachi to Peshawar and then onwards.

Read: Police recover 36 minor girls from Karachi home

A Civil Aviation Authority doctor carried out medical checkup of the girls at the airport’s executive lounge before they’re sent home in private coaches hired by the authorities. He said one girl had fever, while another complained of eye infection.

The police had raided a house in Liaquatabad area of Karachi and recovered minor girls from a house on Wednesday last.

The authorities still grope in the dark about how the girls had reached Karachi, where they’re kept in a residential compound.

The relevant officials said investigation into the matter was in progress and that the Fata civil secretariat would assist the Sindh police in it.

How minors reached Karachi still a mystery

“The political administration will carry out investigation at the local level to know motives behind the confining of such a large number of girls to a house,” said a civil secretariat official.

Also read: Children pay the price

Abdul Raziq, father of two girls, told Dawn that he had handed over his daughters voluntarily to a Lower Dir teacher for admission to a Karachi seminary.

He said the teacher had already taken many minor girls from his village to Karachi for religious education. “I will not send my daughters for education outside the village after this episode,” said the perturbed man.

Fata additional chief secretary Mohammad Azam Khan said apparently, the girls studying in a seminary were kept in a house due to a monetary dispute between a seminary teacher and the canteen’s contractor.

According to him, the seminary teacher identified as Hameeda belongs to Samar Bagh area of Lower Dir district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The contractor had reportedly received loan from the teacher and failed to return loan in stipulated period.

Azam Khan said the Sindh police were conducting investigation and that the Fata civil secretariat and the Bajaur political administration would facilitate investigators if the need arose.

He said 15 girls were handed over to their parents in Karachi after verification, while 20 others were brought to Peshawar.

The Fata additional chief secretary said political authorities had arrested two cousins in Bajaur Agency with regard to the matter and that they were being interrogated.

He said on the directives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, the relevant authorities had begun mapping seminaries in tribal agencies to maintain data of all institutions.

Azam Khan said elders in Fata would be involved to check activities and enrolment of children in local seminaries to prevent Karachi-like incident.

Published in Dawn, November 30th , 2014