ISLAMABAD: District Police Officer (DPO) Sargodha on Monday informed Supreme Court of Pakistan that 151 girls abducted from Sargodha have been recovered as the apex court continued the hearing of the Sobia Batool case.
A three-member bench, headed by Justice Maqbool Baqir, heard the case and expressed its astonishment over the abduction of so many girls from Sargodha, deeming it a result of “incompetence and failure of police”.
On the court’s order, an operation was carried out to recover the missing girls and as a result, 151 girls were rescued from different areas of Sargodha division, said District Police Officer (DPO) Dr Rizwan Ahmad Khan.
According to DPO Sargodha, 21 girls had been rescued from brothels, however, Sobia Batool has not been found. He elaborated that 16 accused had been arrested and some of the recovered girls had provided marriage certificates.
Deeming the abductions a failure of the police force, Justice Baqir stated, “It is a matter of great abuse that despite the First Information Report (FIR), the recovery was so lax”.
The apex court judge also questioned the DPO whether the recovered girls had their FIRs registered and ordered Station House Officers (SHO) of police stations, where cases were registered, to be notified.
The apex court further directed the Inspector General of Punjab (IGP) Rao Sardar Ali Khan to take steps to rescue abducted girls across the province and ordered the police to take steps for the recovery of Sobia Batool.
The court also rejected the bail plea of accused Muhammad Umair, who was arrested in Sobia Batool’s kidnapping case.
It is pertinent to mention here that 18-year-old Sobia Batool, a resident of the Hussain Shah area of Sargodha, had mysteriously gone missing on August 18, 2020.
An FIR was registered at Sargodha’s Shahpur police station on August 28, 2020 under the provisions of kidnapping. Since then, no trace of the girl has been found.
