KARACHI: A six-year-old girl, who was kidnapped in Saeedabad on Thursday evening, was recovered from Surjani Town in the early hours of Friday morning and one alleged kidnapper was arrested, said police.

They added that Sawera had come out from her home in Saeedabad, Sector 12-A, on Thursday evening to purchase something from a nearby shop, but did not return home.

The family searched for her but could not find her.

Later on, her uncle Azam got an FIR (57/2020) registered under Section 363 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Saeedabad police station.

Early on Friday morning, the Surjani police were patrolling in Khuda Ki Basti and they received information that a man riding a motorbike was carrying a girl and roaming suspiciously in the area.

The police intercepted the man, who identified himself as Javed Masih while the kidnapped girl identified herself as Sawera, daughter of Mohammed Shafiq.

The police took them into custody and brought them to the police station, where it transpired that the girl had been abducted in Saeedabad.

The Surjani police also claimed to have recovered one pistol and a motorbike from the held suspect’s possession.

Another FIR (130/2020) under Section 23(1) of the Sindh Arms Act was registered against the suspect at the Surjani Town police station.

According to the SSP West, the girl was handed over to her mother and all family members and area people expressed their gratitude to the police.

Encroachments removal plan

Inspector General of Police Sindh, Dr Syed Kaleem Imam on Friday said that a concrete and coordinated action plan had been prepared to remove encroachments in Sindh under orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The provincial police chief also vowed that police posts built on encroached land across the province would also be eliminated.

Mr Imam said this in a statement issued by the central police office.

He said that the police strategy and action plan against drugs, gutka, mawa, gambling, and other dens of social vices would be made result-oriented.

He claimed that different kinds of crimes had been reduced significantly in the province, including murders, targeted killings, kidnapping for ransom, robberies, extortion, etc.

The IG also referred to data of an international organisation, Numbeo in whose crime index Karachi was at number 94 with start of the month of February 2020.

He recalled that in the same crime index in 2014, Karachi was at number six out of total 374 cities of the world.

Mr Imam believed that such perception speaks volumes about better and effective policing against crimes owing to which law and order situation had improved in Karachi and other parts of the province.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2020