http://www.thepakistaninewspaper.com/news_detail.php?id=4439
Pakistani underage girl kidnapped and trafficked to Afghanistan:UN
Intervention Requested
The internationally renowned anti human trafficking and human rights
organization - Ansar Burney Trust International - has reported the
kidnapping of a 10 year old Pakistani girl from Karachi by an Afghan
national, who has taken her to Afghanistan and is now demanding a
ransom for her release.
Hina alias Rani, a 10 year old innocent girl from Karachi, Pakistan,
was kidnapped by Shahbaz Khan, who trafficked her to Afghanistan with
the intention of collecting a ransom for her release. Shahbaz Khan was
an Afghan national who earlier ran a local shop in Karachi.
The Chairman of Ansar Burney Trust International and Pakistan's most
renowned human rights and anti human trafficking activist, Ansar Burney
said that Shahbaz Khan is just one of the growing numbers of such
Afghan traffickers in Pakistan today. Mr. Burney reports a growing
trend amongst criminal elements in the Afghan government and amongst
its people of the trafficking of persons.
"Afghanistan is a country runs by warlords and drug barons, who are now
also in the business of trafficking of children and young girls. These
same criminal elements, many of whom are in the Afghan government
itself, are now killing many of the victims for the sale of their body
organs in the international market". Ansar Burney said.
Ansar Burney Trust International is a human rights organization that
has specialized in the field of anti-trafficking of persons. In this
regard, Ansar Burney, Chairman of the Trust has been declared an
International Hero and the Ansar Burney Trust has been declared as an
International Best Practice by the US State Department and Condoleezza
Rice in 2005. Ansar Burney Trust is also the same organization that
successfully convinced the governments of several Middle Eastern
countries to ban the use of underage children working on modern day
slavery as child camel jockeys; and the efforts of Ansar Burney Trust
have resulted in the return of well over a thousand underage children
back to their respective countries.
According to Ansar Burney Trust, on 10th of December 2004, a girl Hina
alias Rani (10) was missing from Manzoor Colony in Jamshed Town
Karachi. Later on 15 th of December 2004, the father of the girl lodged
an FIR no: 253/04 at Baluch Colony and accused Shahbaz Khan, an Afghan
national who worked in a shop in the area, of the kidnapping of his
daughter.
The father of the girl received phone calls from the captors in
Afghanistan demanding ransom for the release of Hina. Shahbaz, who made
the phone call, informed the father of the kidnapping of the girl and
stated that she is now in Cutwaz, Maseet in Afghanistan. He rang from
satellite phone no: 00 88 21688857577.
The Ansar Burney Trust reports that as the days go by, the condition of
the parents of Hina is deteriorating more and more.
For a few years now, the Ansar Burney Trust International has been
reporting on the involvement of Afghan Government officials in the
trafficking of children and young girls to and from Afghanistan. Visits
by Trust members to Afghanistan on humanitarian missions uncovered
markets where women were being sold like animals. On complaints to
local authorities, Trust members were told to forget what they saw. The
Ansar Burney Trust has also reported these serious and shocking human
rights violations to the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, yet to date, no
action has been taken.
"In fact, trafficking in Afghanistan has turned into a new way to make
money. These warlords, who till yesterday were known throughout the
world as criminals, are now in the Afghan Government itself and are
using their new powers to ruin the lives of innocent children and girls
for their own benefits". Ansar Burney said.
The Ansar Burney Trust reports that persons are being abducted from
several regional countries from where they are taken to Afghanistan .
Here, under the protection of the Afghanistan government, these
trafficked victims are sold. Children mostly end up working as child
camel jockeys in the Middle East, or along with trafficked adults have
their body organs removed for sale in the international market.
Young girls are sold into forced prostitution in Afghanistan and to
agents who take them abroad. While others are sold to government
officials who use them for themselves, to entertain guests and for
housework. Ansar Burney Trust also reports that it has gathered
evidence that many children trafficked to Afghanistan are being trained
by local warlords to work as a future generation of Fighters and
Terrorists. In this regard, the Ansar Burney Trust International
appeals to the Governments of Pakistan and the United States to take
firm action to put a stop to such activities.
Ansar Burney, Chairman of Ansar Burney Trust International made a
passionate appeal to the President of Pakistan General Pervez
Musharraf, UN Secretary General Koffi Annan, US President Bush and to
the leaders of European countries and international NGO's to help in
the search of such trafficking victims and ensure their rescue and
repatriation to their home countries and families.
Ansar Burney also appealed to President Musharraf to beef up boarder
security to keep vigil on Afghan nationals involved in such heinous
crimes. He demanded for urgent steps to ensure safe return of
Pakistanis languishing in the private prisons of warlords and official
prisons; and in this regard requested the Pakistani government to take
firm actions against those criminal elements and the Afghan Government
officials who are responsible for such activities.
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