HRCP demands urgent steps to recover girls abducted from Karachi

In a statement issued on Friday, the Commission said: “HRCP has serious concerns for the well being of three girls, who were abducted from Karachi on September 7, and are reported to be in captivity in a remote village in Sindh. We have already written to the police and administration authorities in Sindh to raise our concern and demand the girls’ safe recovery.”

“The girls, Surat Umri, Nagina and Sabina, are all said to be minors, and the family had lodged an abduction case with the police,” it said.

According to the only accused arrested so far, the girls had been taken to Larkana. It has been reported to HRCP that a policeman in Larkana had advised the family to pay Rs one million as ransom to the abductors for the girls’ release.

“We have since learned that the girls have been moved from Larkana to Shikarpur and from there to Khanpur village, near Pakistan’s border with India,” the statement read. “HRCP is not in a position to vouch for all the details shared with us by the family, but we urge the authorities to urgently investigate the matter and recover the girls.”

Beyond this case, the rights group also demanded the government to investigate numerous credible reports of abduction and trafficking of women, especially in upper Sindh, where it said the collusion of the abductors and local landowners with the police appears to be one of the main hurdles in putting an end to the abduction, trafficking and sale of women.