To hell and back
By Rabia Ali
February 18, 2011
The 11-year-old girl recovered from the captivity of kidnappers after three months has planned to throw a party for all those who have saved her life.
Recording her statement at the police station, Faiza Shakeel seemed to be smiling and crying at the same time.
The Mehmoodabad police recovered the girl early on Wednesday morning, breaking the back of a gang run by three men and two women involved in the dirty business of kidnapping and selling young girls.
Faiza Shakeel was traced by the police after she gave a missed call to her father a few days ago.
Dressed in shimmery light green-coloured clothes, the skinny girl, who was fed only a half piece of Roti every day, told The News, I am very happy to be reunited with my family. The kidnappers treated me very badly and often used to beat me up with shoes. They made me do household work, and would threaten me with guns and knives whenever I expressed my desire to go home.
Recalling the incident, the sixth-grade student said she was going back home from a nearby shop when the kidnappers, aiming a gun at her, made her smell a handkerchief. She fell unconscious and later woke up at an unknown house amongst strangers.
For most of the days in captivity, Faiza remained unconscious as the kidnappers used to force her to take sleeping pills. I missed my family dearly and spent hours crying. On February 6, I got a chance to call my father when the children of the kidnappers were playing with a mobile phone. I snatched the phone from them and called my father. But before he could pick up, an incoming call made me drop the line.
The girl said that during her three months in captivity, she was shifted to three different houses and was asked to make calls to parents of other kidnapped children.
Muhammad Shakeel, a retired Pakistan Navy official, who had been anxiously searching for his missing daughter, had always been optimistic that one day his daughter would contact him.
It is no less than a miracle that Faiza has been found. I knew that someday she would call me. I was with the police when they conducted the raid and I will never be able to forget the moment when I saw her, said a jubilant father, with tears rolling down his eyes. The SIO of the Mehmoodabad Police Station, Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal, who has played a vital role in the recovery of the child, said that one of the arrested women, Rukhsana, was the head prostitute and involved in immoral activities. He said that the police had been actively pursuing the case, and even arrested the imposter, Ghulam Hyder, who fooled the family into believing that he had Faiza and swindled around Rs70,000 out of them.
On the rooftop of the police station, where the media was interviewing the culprits, the arrested women hid their faces and the chained men stood barefoot. They were denying accepting responsibility for kidnapping Faiza, blaming one another for her abduction and beatings.
Faiza has planned to throw a party for all those who have saved her. I am thankful to all those who saved me. I cant wait to go to school as my tests are about to start. Since the time I have come, my younger sister Eesha has been clinging to me, and the mother has been crying continuously. I will never go away anywhere now.
To hell and back
To hell and back
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