Bushra bibi, age 20, daughter of Muhammad Rustum Omari, abducted at Hazara Colony on March 2, 2013. Still missing. -Dr Salim Khokhar, kidnapped at Liaquatabad on May, 28, 2013. Recovered on June 2. Kidnapper shot dead. -Baby Ayan , 10 month-old, abducted at Civil Hospital on May 8, 2013. Still missing.
-Mustafa Dossal, 13, kidnapped by a Facebook 'friend' at his school in Defence Phase II on May 24, 2013. Recovered five days later. -A bid to abduct a young girl failed at a Clifton shopping mall on March 6, 2013, when the mall's security guards took action. Girl's family apparently knew the abductors. Name of girl or her would be kidnappers not revealed.
-Teenage daughter of a man (Names not given) missing since June 2012 from remit of Docks police station, allegedly taken to Sargodha. A suspect arrested in Sargodha said the girl 'had been shifted' to Hunza. -Nine party workers of MQM allegedly kidnapped by law enforcement agents in the course of past four months. Muttahida filed a constitutional petition in Sindh High Court on June 4.
The single common factor in these cases is that they happened in Karachi. Even a glance at the above list reveals that there were many different reasons for the kidnappings besides the usual case of demanding ransom. The girls were probably taken by white-slave traders. The failed abduction at a Clifton mall sounds fake. The baby will probably be sold to childless parents, if not found soon. Politics obviously features in the case of missing party workers of the MQM.
Kidnapping, for whatever reason, is a growing city crime. It is hard to tell how many persons are kidnapped every month. Very few cases are reported to the police, or courts or the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC). It is also stated that police does not like to register First Investigation Report (FIR) in many serious crimes, including kidnapping because it reflects badly in their service report if there are too many crimes, and unsolved crimes, in the area under their jurisdiction. Crime reporters claim in most cases of girl abduction there is no demand for ransom. This, they believe, is a sign that the girl will be sold into prostitution (white slavery). The reporters' most shocking allegation is that parents or guardians or even brother or uncle of the abducted girl may have aided and abetted in the kidnapping, for money.
Cases of girl abduction from the city are said to be the highest, while the recovery rate is almost nil. Baby snatching is another mode of kidnapping in which the recovery rate is poor. However, almost all known cases in this the most tragic kind of kidnapping, were from maternity homes and hospitals catering to the poor and needy, including Civil Hospital. There is a horrible helplessness of poor parents who lose their baby. They tend to be ignorant of reporting procedure, they are afraid of the police, they do not have funds to run from pillar to post asking for help. This crime can be controlled, if not eradicated if guards are appointed in hospitals. It is also a work some NGOs could do.
It is always the poor who lose their babies. If an affluent person was to lose a baby, there would be a great hue and cry and 'something' would be done to stop the menace of baby snatching. There have been times when the kidnapper, usually a woman, has been caught, even the childless parents to whom the kidnapped baby was sold were found. Then what happened? In the kidnapper was punished with a short jail sentence; the childless parent let off on compassionate grounds; the relieved parents of the baby did not press charges. There is a need for a special law to protect babies.
The profile of the kidnapper has charged, if you consider the case of the kidnapping of young Mustafa Dossal by his Facebook friend Taimur Alvi, 25, who handed the boy over to Lyari gangsters, who demanded ransom from the victims family. Alvi had a cut in the ransom. The kidnapper lives in DHA Phase-IV, so he is not poor, he is greedy. If he knew about Lyari gangs who took kidnapped victims, it indicates a connection between well-to-do operators and gangsters. Where is this city heading if you cannot define a person's character by his social status? Who is to be trusted?
The recovery of young Mustafa was a laudable, efficient operation by a joint team of the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) and the CPLC. That kidnapping is on the rise in Karachi is evident from the creation of a Rapid Response Force (RRF) of the AVCC. Some 5,000 highly trained policemen, trained by the army, was created by former Sindh Police Chief Sultan Salahuddin Baber Khattak in 2009. The RRF personnel are nicknamed 'police commandos' , and success in the recovery of kidnapped victims depends largely on their effort.