In the process of carrying out its continuous search for a teenage girl who has been missing from a village for the past 20 months, the Sargodha police have managed to recover more than 200 missing girls from various districts in the Sargodha Division.
Police’s countrywide search operation to recover the 17- year-old Sobia Batool, who went missing from her village Hussain Shah in Sargodha since August 2020, couldn’t be successful as whereabouts of the alleged abductee still remain untraced, Bol News has learnt.
During raids to recover Sobia Batool, the Police teams have quite amazingly managed to recover at least 218 girls including 21 from various prostitution dens in Sargodha Division. Those recovered from prostitution dens have been handed over to Darul Aman Sargodha for further legal formalities whereas the remaining have been rejoined with their families. Almost all of these girls have confessed before the court that they had eloped with their lovers by their own choice and have entered marriage contracts with them.
Muhammad Ramzan, father of Sobai Batool had lodged a complaint with police station Shahpur Sadar, Sargodha stating that his daughter had been kidnapped by accused Muhammad Umair from his house. Batool went missing on August 21, 2020 around 11:30pm. Police registered an FIR No. 372 on August 28, 2020 u/s 365-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at PS Shahpur Sadar, Sargodha against Muhammad Umair and the other accused.
They later managed to recover a mobile phone which had remained in the use of abductee through which it was established that she was in touch with accused Muhammad Umair. After initial probe, police arrested accused Muhammad Umair along with his friends Sarfraz Ahmad, Ejaz Maikan, and Muhammad Qasim but still haven’t been able to trace the whereabouts of the missing girl. The prime suspect Umair later confessed of having an affair with Sobia Batool but said he had no role in her alleged abduction.
The investigation into the missing girl’s case started at a snail’s pace until the matter reached the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The prime suspect in the case Muhammad Umair then approached the apex court to get a post-arrest bail.
So far, the Police high-ups have formed several teams to find Sobia Batool and even approached police of other provinces including Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), investigations agencies including FIA and intelligence agencies including Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) but no clue about Sobia could have been found as yet.
It is also learnt that a Proclamation containing particulars of abductee was published and it was circulated amongst the IGsP and IGs of Prisons of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan through IGP, Punjab Lahore, in order to get information about Sobia Batool. Furthermore, it is learnt, secretaries, Health Department, Govt: of Punjab, Sindh, Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan were also moved through IGP, Punjab Lahore to provide information, if any, regarding the missing girl but no clue could be surfaced as yet.
Talking to Bol News, Muhammad Ramzan said he has been running from pillar to post for the last year and a half to get justice but police couldn’t trace his missing daughter as yet. He accused the police of going soft against the accused and also for not taking the necessary measures to recover his young daughter.
On the other hand, talking to Bol News, Regional Police Officer (RPO) Sargodha Division Rana Faisal said Police have been making round the clock efforts to recover Sobia Batool. He said several teams have been constituted in this regard but unfortunately the missing girl couldn’t be recovered. “Now the matter has reached the Supreme Court and my team is following the directions of the apex court to find the girl,” he said.
To a question, Faisal said with the help of Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA), the DNA of Sobia Batool’s parents is being matched with the unidentified bodies of the females found from various parts of the country. He said District Police Officer (DPO) Sargodha Dr Muhammad Rizwan Khan has personally visited several cities, particularly Karachi, to find any whereabouts of Sobia but could not meet with any success has been achieved so far. To another question, the RPO said all the nominated and other accused have been questioned at length, but no clue of Sobia could be found.
According to Rana Faisal, they have even investigated the trafficking aspect as well but couldn’t find any clue that a particular group of people was involved in trafficking such girls to other places of the country. He said a majority of the recovered girls belonged to poor families and eloped with their lovers and Later got married to them.
