Law enforcers at odds after missing siblings' 'safe return' in Karachi's North Nazimabad

• SSP says children told them that they left home on their own.
• Boy says they left because grandmother, aunt hurled abuses.
• Rangers say foiled "kidnapping" bid resulted in kids' return.

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KARACHI: A young boy and a girl — the two siblings who "went missing" from outside their residence yesterday in vicinity of North Nazimabad’s police station — “safely returned to their home”, with law enforcers at odds over how the two came back.

The two siblings had allegedly gone missing from Karachi's North Nazimabad area a day earlier.

Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Central Zeeshan Siddiqui confirmed to Geo News on Wednesday that the 12-year-old girl and the 11-year-old boy told the police in their statements that they left home on their own. 

Later, the boy told the police in his statement that he and his sister stayed at a couple's house last night.

"We left home willingly on our own. We spent the night at our uncle and aunty's house. [Maternal] grandmother and aunt used to hurl abusive words at us and made us do the cleaning," he said.

"We approached the uncle, and aunty when we saw them and they took us to their house," he added.

After the development, the children's mother, Shumaila, took to X to confirm that her children have safely returned to their home. She also thanked netizens for raising the disappearance issue of her children which led to their recovery.

However, Sindh Rangers said something not as simple as the police and the children themselves had said.

A Rangers spokesperson said that they thwarted a "kidnapping for ransom" bid, which resulted in their safe return.

The spokesperson said that the missing children's mother received a ransom call on March 12 from outside the country, with a demand of Rs1 million for the children's return.

However, the Rangers traced the missing siblings using "modern technical sources", leaving no choice for the kidnappers but to leave the children in Haideri area to avoid arrest.

Earlier, Central SSP Siddiqui had told Geo News that the parents of the said kids are separated and a dispute was going on between them to secure the custody of their children.

The police had registered a case of missing children at North Nazimabad Police Station against unidentified individuals.

According to a first information report (FIR) the children had left the house at 11:55pm.

The mother of the missing kids had said that her children had been been missing since 12 last night.

"The kids went to buy burgers and there has been no information about their whereabouts since then," she added.

She also said that they searched the kids everywhere, however, they could not find them and the police have no information about their whereabouts either.

"I have separated from my husband for nine years and after our separation, he remarried and I moved to Dubai. I had left my kids to my mother for their education," the mother said.