PESHAWAR: A six-year-old girl, who had been kidnapped in Peshawar some three and half years ago and forced into begging, has been recovered in Dera Ismail Khan.

Dera Ismail Khan police also arrested the alleged kidnapper identified as Kamil Khan. The arrested man was handed over to Badhber police station where a case was registered against him.

Badhber DSP Yasin Khan told a press conference that the girl was kidnapped from Shah Zamin Ghari area in 2014. “The girl was about three years old when she was kidnapped,” he said, adding that her uncle Abdul Wahid reported the case to the police then, however, no progress could be made.

The DSP said that about a week ago, the complainant approached Badhber police station and informed them that Dera Ismail Khan’s Saddar police station recovered the girl. He said that they immediately got in touch with Dera Ismail Khan police and dispatched a team to bring back the kidnapped child.

Police say kidnapper forced her into begging

Mr Khan said that Dera police informed them that Kamil Khan, a resident of Bannu, approached them saying her girl had gone missing. He said when police recovered the child, she refused to go with Kamil. He said that police directed him to bring child’s parents for verification.

He said that Kamil Khan did not contact Dera Ismail Khan police. He said that police uploaded the girl’s pictures on Facebook, which were seen by her family in Badhber.

He said that after shifting the girl to Peshawar, she and her family nominated Kamil Khan in FIR for kidnapping her. He said that the suspect kidnapped the child to force her into begging and for that purpose he also broke one of her fingers.

Mr said that police arrested Kamil Khan on August 14. He said that the suspect told police that he spent night at Gohar Hotel near the child’s house and abducted her from roadside and shifted her to Bannu to force her into begging.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2017