Strange story of decade-long kidnap of Pak-born UK girl

LONDON - British police are to probe strange claims of a Pakistani-born woman that she was forcibly kept in a slave labour camp in Pakistan for nearly a decade.

Nahida Bi from Glasgow has told the police she was abducted near the airport in Islamabad in 2000 soon afte she landed there on a holiday along with her mother. Her uncle, Masood, who came to receive them, was also abducted, she added.

She said both were taken to a terrorist camp in a tribal area where she was forced to repair firearms along with other captive women. She said the kidnappers initially asked for a huge ransom, but subsequently put her to work and repeatedly abused her. Three weeks ago, they suddenly released her along with her uncle and some other captive women near Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab.

The British police are having a tough time verifying Nahida’s claims as nearly a decade has passed since her reported abduction. The police told The Guardian that her family members initially informed the British home office about her kidnap in 2000, but were never heard from till 2007 when they again made contact saying Nahida had been missing for the past seven years.

She now believes she was held in the Swat valley in North-West Frontier province. It is understood her uncle returned to his home in Pakistan after being freed.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Gunn of Strathclyde police, Glasgow said: “We will continue to liaise with the authorities in Pakistan and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to aid them with their ongoing investigations.”