The mystery over two Karachi children who were recovered hours after leaving their house at night has taken a new turn after a CCTV video of their arrival in a shopping mall emerged on Thursday. The matter has also been complicated by an allegation by the children’s mother who said that police were coercing a statement out of her children.

The video shows the children, Ayan and Anabia, sitting on a chair as their father, Rashid, arrives accompanied by Rangers.

The father can be seen rushing to the children and embracing them. They were later taken to the office of SSP Central.

However, it is still not clear how the children reached the mall or who dropped them there. Both Police and rangers are still harguing over who is to be credited over the recovery.

Meanwhile, a Karachi court will decide who will get the children’s custody.

The children’s version

The children told the police that they left the house of their aunt, who forced them to work in the house including cleaning toilets and washing dishes.

Both children said that the decision to leave the house was their own and was based on the treatment of their aunt and grandmother.

They claimed that they left their house late at night to get food from near the house. They added that after getting food, then strolled the streets aimlessly for some time.

The children added that they haad flagged a vehicle and asked to be dropped off at Edhi Home. However, the driver insisted on dropping them off at home, after which they went to the house of an uncle.

They added that they were dropped off by the uncle next day at the mall in Haideri, where the police found them.

The children live with their grandparents as their parents split up eight years ago. Their mother lives in Dubai, where she works.

The mystery

It remains be established beyond doubt whether the children were abducted or just ventured far away from home and had to be rescued.

The main point of investigations remains to investigate who brought the children to the mall where they were ultimately found as per the CCTV video.

Police is also investigating how the unknown people acquired the mother’s number and made a ransom call.

The Ranger’s version

Rangers said that the children had gone missing on March 12 from their home in North Nazimabad after which their mother had received a call asking for Rs1 million in ransom.

After the Rangers tried to track the origin of the call, the alleged abductors left the children in Karachi’s Haideri area and escaped.

Meanwhile, the Rangers tracked the children down at a mall in Haideri from where they were recovered.

The police’s version

On the other hand, police said that the children were recovered by them from North Nazimabad instead of Haideri.

Police also claimed to have carried out a human intelligence based operation.

SSP Central said that some unknown person had found the children wandering near Five-Star Chowrangi and took them with him. However, the person left the children after reports of their disappearance made it to the media.

The mother’s statement

Meanwhile, the mother of the children, who resides in Dubai, said that the children were visibly terrified in the video statement they had made.

She added that the children lived with loving grandparents and it was unimaginable that they had been disgruntled enough to leave home.

She retierated that the children had been abducted and the police had coerced a statement out of them. She said that the ‘forced’ statement has put the case in an entirely different direction.

The mother also criticised the statement by the children without verification or consideration for ‘sensitivity’.

She added that the children had gone missing at night and had been recevered the next day and no one has any idea what had happened during the time they were missing.

Denying reports of the children’s mistreatment, she added that the children were well cared for by her family.

The mother demanded that the video of the children’s statement should be deleted by the TV channels who had aired it.