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Assam woman, son traced to Pakistani jail 2 months after going missing
She was allegedly duped and taken to Saudi Arabia first on the pretext of marriage using forged documents and then to Pakistan
A 36-year-old woman and her son, who went missing from Assam’s Nagaon in November, have been traced to a Pakistani jail where they have been lodged for illegally entering the country, police in the northeastern state said on Friday.
She was allegedly duped and taken to Saudi Arabia first on the pretext of marriage using forged documents and then to Pakistan. Nagaon police superintendent Leena Doley said the woman, who was widowed two years ago, sold off her property and left Nagaon in November with a man she had met recently and had promised to marry her.
She added they came to know about her whereabouts last month when the woman’s mother received a letter from a law firm in Pakistan informing her that her daughter and grandson were lodged in the district jail of Quetta in Pakistan’s Baluchistan.
The woman’s mother later lodged a police case and also received a call from her daughter confirming her location. “The woman was able to make calls to her mother over social media platforms using a phone given to her by someone from the jail staff. She told her mother she was duped with the promise of marriage and taken to Saudi Arabia using fake documents and from there to Pakistan,” said Doley.
Doley said they also managed to talk to the woman but the details of how she landed in Pakistan are sketchy. “It appears she and her son along with the man, who took her from Nagaon to Saudi Arabia, were arrested in Pakistan when they tried to enter the country using fake documents.”
Doley said the woman and her son have been kept in separate jail wards. She added the man, suspected to be an Afghan national who took them to Saudi Arabia and then Pakistan, is lodged separately in the same prison. “The woman and her son are stated to be in good condition and not tortured.”
Doley said they have taken up the matter with higher authorities including in New Delhi and were trying to bring the woman and her son back.
The woman’s mother filed a petition in the Delhi high court and also wrote to President Droupadi Murmu seeking the repatriation of her daughter and grandson.
On Friday, the high court dismissed her petition saying it was not within its jurisdiction. It asked her to approach the Gauhati high court.
The woman’s mother said she came to know about her daughter’s disappearance on December 12 when she went to visit her. “I was told by her neighbours that she sold off her property and was taken away by three persons. I approached the police after that and lodged a case of kidnapping.”
She alleged her daughter could have been kidnapped due to some land-related issues or because of the amount she received after selling her property. “I came to know about her presence in Pakistan when I got the letter which was followed by a call from my daughter.”
