“What is wrong with people? All this just for money.”
A teenage girl in Karachi staged her own kidnapping to extort a ransom of PKR 1.5 million (£4,300) from her father.
It was revealed that the teenager, named Musfira, staged the incident in December 2024.
This came seven months after she had eloped with her friend, Waleed, and married him in Punjab.
According to police, Musfira devised the ransom scheme to extort money from her family.
Musfira’s father received a ransom demand through social media, claiming his daughter had been abducted.
The money was reportedly collected near Steel Town in Karachi.
However, police investigations led to the recovery of Musfira and Waleed, who were returned to their families.
A kidnapping case had initially been filed at the Tipu Sultan Police Station.
The authorities have now revealed that Musfira had orchestrated the entire scheme.
The incident has sparked public outrage, especially as Karachi faces a wave of legitimate kidnapping cases.
Critics argued that the police resources and time spent on the bogus case could have been used to address real abductions.
A user questioned: “What is wrong with people? All this just for money.”
Another remarked: “Her parents raised her only for this day to come. Imagine what they felt.”
In January 2025 alone, six children went missing in the port city.
On January 16, two children, five-year-old Aliyan and six-year-old Ali Raza, went missing from Karachi’s Garden area while playing outside their homes.
Despite extensive search efforts, including the use of CCTV footage and area-wide combing operations, the children remain unaccounted for.
Initial CCTV footage suggested that a man and woman on a motorbike had kidnapped the boys.
However, further investigation revealed that the individuals seen in the footage were taking their own children to a clinic before disappearing.
Efforts to locate Aliyan and Ali Raza are ongoing, with police conducting house-to-house searches.
Volunteers from Edhi Foundation are combing the Lyari River.
City SSP Arif Aziz assured the families that all measures are being taken to recover the children, with some suspects already being questioned.
Meanwhile, outrage continues to grow over the unresolved murder of seven-year-old Sarim.
His body was found in a water tank 11 days after his disappearance.
On January 22, 2025, grief-stricken parents and residents of North Karachi protested outside the apartment complex where Sarim was abducted.
Protesters blocked traffic, demanding justice and expressing dissatisfaction with the police investigation.
Despite detaining suspects, authorities have yet to identify the culprits.