SAHIWAL: A young female cotton-picker of 53/12-L village in Chichawatni tehsil, who was abducted, repeatedly raped and then sold to a prostitution network in Sindh, manged to escape from his captors and returned home on Tuesday after 40 days.

On the complaint of the girl’s maternal uncle, Gulam Abbas, Okanwala Bangla police in Chichawatni tehsil, registered a case against the two abductors, both residents of the victim’s native village, as well as another of Dhagri village in Umerkot district of Sindh, and an unidentified suspect, on Wednesday.

The case was registered against the suspects under sections 375-A and 365-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), along with relevant provisions of the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018.

According to the police report, 18-year-old ‘Z’ left her home on August 20, 2025, to pick cotton in a nearby village. On her way back, she was allegedly intercepted by two armed suspects belonging to her village, riding a motorcycle.

Victim says she was trafficked to a village in Umerkot district of Sindh for prostitution

The suspects allegedly abducted the girl and took her to an abandoned house, where she was locked in a room and was repeatedly raped by both men.

‘Z’ told police that the two suspects then drugged her and she fell unconscious. She says that when she regained consciousness, she found herself in a car going on a highway.

She says that she was again rendered unconscious with a chemical-soaked cloth by the suspects and eventually transported to Dhagri village in Umerkot, Sindh, where she was handed over to a suspect, ‘G’, who told her that she had been sold for Rs200,000 by her two abductors/rapists.

She says that ‘G’ ran a brothel and forced her into prostitution. She says that during her captivity she was repeatedly subjected to sexual abuse by ‘G’ and some other men.

The FIR says that on September 27, while being transported to Hyderabad, the suspect’s car halted at a place due to traffic congestion on the national highway.

Seizing the moment, ‘Z’ escaped from the car and cried for help, inviting attention of passersby. On seeing people gathering around ‘Z’, the suspect ‘G’ fled the scene.

She says that a passerby offered her his mobile phone, enabling her to contact her family. She was taken to a house in Hyderabad, where her cousin Farooq and uncle Abbas later arrived and brought her back home. On Wednesday, ‘Z’ filed a complaint with the police.

A police official says that the girl’s medical examination is being conducted and that a case has been registered against the four suspects.

He says that the victim told the police investigators that a criminal network is operating across Punjab and Sindh, targeting young girls, who are kidnapped and sold for prostitution.

Sahiwal DPO Rana Tahir told Dawn that the police have arrested one of the girl’s abductors, who has so far denied the charges. The DPO adds that further investigations into the case are underway.

The girl’s family claims that they had approached Okanwala Bangla police on Aug 21 with a complaint about her abduction, but no FIR was registered.

There are unconfirmed reports that the other abductor was already indited in a honey-trap case registered with Fatehsher police station.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2025