Iranian police have rescued a young Pakistani woman allegedly taken illegally to Iran and forcibly married by a Pakistani man.
The action was taken after the orphan girl sent a video message to Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, through her family, begging for her rescue.
“Governor sahib! Can you please help me get rid of this man who has unlawfully entered into Nikkah with me? If you don’t help me in two days, I will commit suicide,” pleaded the girl in a message exclusively obtained by Geo News.
The woman is the mother of an almost one-year-old girl and is four months pregnant with another baby. Thanks to the immediate action taken by Tessori, through his offices in the Iranian Foreign Ministry and a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, the woman was rescued by Iranian police and is now in safe hands.
Sindh Governor Tessori informed the family that he has told Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran, Mudassir Tipu, that the girl should be sent to Karachi by airplane. The governor has offered to pay all the expenses from his own pocket.
The woman’s father died 16 years ago and her mother passed away six years ago. She is the youngest among her siblings and had stopped pursuing her dreams of further education due to a lack of resources.
Sadia was a resident of Nishtar Colony, Latifabad, Hyderabad. According to her brother, his sister disappeared almost two and a half years ago.
“The first contact was made by an unknown person through an Iranian phone number on 14-08-23, claiming that he had married my sister,” informed the brother. The elder brother said they tried their best to contact that person again, but the number was switched off.
Before leaving the house, the woman was in contact with a local resident of her vicinity, and the family had suspicions that the person had kidnapped her. Later, it turned out that the suspected man had played a role in sending her to a woman who got her into a forcible marriage with Imran Bhatti, claims a source.
The family tried to locate the girl but failed and eventually filed an FIR at the local police station on 18-09-23. However, the girl could not be recovered.
According to a copy of the unverified birth certificate, the woman was born on 25-03-1994. She passed her Secondary School Certificate examination in April 2010.
In her video message to Sindh Governor Tessori, the girl also claimed that she neither had an identity card (ID) nor a passport.
According to a copy of the unverified marriage certificate, the woman was married to a man, who is a resident of District Ghotki. The date of birth of the man was written as 16-07-1986. He was shown as a resident of Al-Qutub Town, Dharki.
However, the name of the woman was not entirely written. The name and caste of her father were changed and the residential address was given as Rahim Yar Khan.
The said Nikkah was solemnised on 10-09-2023, almost a month after the girl had left home under strange circumstances.
Eight months ago, the woman briefly called from an unknown number and narrated her tragic story to the family. According to her brother, from then onwards, whenever she got a chance, the woman started calling either from the phone of a kind neighbouring lady or from a shop in her area.
The woman told them that she was living in Kushk-e-Nar city of Hormozgan province in a very dilapidated condition and needed immediate help.
“We knocked on every door, but our pleas were not heard. With the help of a local MPA, we also reached out to Sindh Interior Minister Zia Lanjar. Even he did not do anything,” lamented the brother.
Finally, the woman appealed to Sindh Governor Tessori for her rescue.
“Governor sahab! Even if you can’t help me, please send my message to the Chief of Army Staff (Chief of Defence Staff, Field Marshal Asim Munir),” the woman pleaded while carrying a baby in her lap.
Her brother said: “We have no words to thank the Sindh governor. He is an angel for my family. He has not only saved the life of my sister but also the dignity of our family.”
