Family searching for missing daughters appeals to authorities for help

PESHAWAR: A helpless family from Buner district is spending cold nights under a bridge here as it continues to protest in daytime for the recovery of its two daughters allegedly abducted about three years ago.

Syed Razzaq along with his aged wife and school-going child entered Peshawar Press Club on Saturday while their two sons remained on the road to press the government for the recovery of the two girls. They said the girls have been missing for the last three years but neither the police nor other authorities had helped them so far.

“We have lost everything including our house. We kept our belongings in three different places while coming to Peshawar to knock at the doors of the police, courts and elected leaders but no one has the time to listen to our problem,” Syed Razaaq told reporters with tears rolling down his cheeks.

He recalled that his daughters Saira Naz, 16, and Yasmeen, 18, were missing after he came back from work one day. His wife recalled that she had gone to the neighbour’s house to cook bread when the incident happened.

“I immediately informed the local police and identified Imran, Babar, Ashraf Ali, Zakir, etc involved in arranging fake marriage of our daughters. Instead of taking action and recovering our daughters, the officials started calling us to police station and getting mere thumb impressions without taking any practical steps,” she said.

The parents, both uneducated, said that since then they have been requesting the authorities on every forum, including social media, but failed to find any clue to their daughters.

“We are roaming on the roads and spending these cold nights under a bridge without food and proper clothes,” Syed Razzaq said. He added that they have told their relatives they would not return empty-handed this time.

“I am trying and if I failed to locate my daughters I will commit suicide along with my wife and children,” he said, posing a question whether any human being can tolerate such a tragedy.

“We are poor and helpless. We will forgive our daughters if they are happy and want to live with their husbands in case they have married, but we still don’t know whether they are alive or dead,” Syed Razzaq lamented.

He wanted to know what type of government and law-enforcement agencies are ruling Pakistan when they could not locate his daughters over the last three years. “Why the government cannot arrest and block the way of the mafia abducting and arranging fake marriages of poor girls for money,” he wondered.

Syed Razzaq and his wife said though the passers-by provide them a few rupees and meals, no one could assist them in solving their problem.

“We don’t know what to do and whom to complain. Who will help us and when? If we fail to recover our daughters, we will not return to our village and will die here in this city,” Syed Razzaq said.