KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday ordered a bone ossification test of Dua Zehra, the girl who was reported to be missing from Karachi and later found out to be married to Zaheer Ahmed of her own free will in Lahore, to ascertain her age. Dua and her husband were presented before the court after being recovered from Bahawalnagar on Sunday.

The two-member bench, which was presided over by Justice Junaid Ghaffar, sent Dua to a shelter home. The court ordered the investigation officer (under whose custody is Dua Zehra) to present a report within two days after ascertaining her age and adjourned the hearing of the case till June 8.

Dua recorded her statement before the court.

“My age is 18 and I got married of my own free will,” she said and confirmed that Mehdi Kazmi was her father upon the judge’s query.

Dua said that she went with her choice with Zaheer in response to a query that the teenage boy abducted her. She also confirmed that the police had taken her in from Chishtian.

“I want to go with my husband,” Dua said when the court asked with whom she wanted to go.

Justice Amjad Sahito asked about the age of the girl from her father. “When my daughter was kidnapped she was 14 years old,” Mehdi Kazmi said.

Dua refused to meet her parents in court when Kazmi’s lawyer’s insisted. Then, the lawyer urged the court to send his client’s daughter to Darul Aman (shelter home).

Shifted to Karachi

Police officials added that Dua Zehra was handed over to the lady constable and her husband was in the protective custody of the Anti Violent Crime Cell of the Crime Investigation Agency.

The Sindh High Court had ordered that the Karachi missing girl must be presented before the court by June 10 after her recovery. Moreover, the Sindh IG was also removed from his post on May 18 over the apparent failure to recover the girl.

The Punjab and Karachi police have claimed to have recovered the couple from a lawyer’s house in Bahawalnagar’s Tehsil Chishtian in a joint operation on Saturday night. The police found them after tracing their location.

Background

Dua Zehra, a 14-year-old girl, went missing from Karachi’s Korangi area Golden Town area after stepping out of the house to dispose of garbage on April 16, according to her father.

Dua’s parents filed a first information report on April 16, alleging that their daughter had been kidnapped when she left the house to dispose of some garbage.

The teenage girl was recovered from Okara, Punjab on April 26. In a video statement, she had said that she was not kidnapped and had married a young man named Zaheer according to her own free will.

The former inspector general of Sindh police had requested the Punjab police to bring Dua Zehra as the couple was changing their location, creating hurdles for the cops to trace them.

More to follow