Headlines
Indian family goes missing in Pakistan
Islamabad/Chandigarh, April 24
Pakistani
authorities are trying to trace an Indian family, including two minor
children, which went missing in Pakistan earlier this month. The
government of India has taken up the matter with Pakistan, Punjab Police
sources said on Friday.
The family, which hailed from Sandhawala
village in Faridkot district, 260 km from Chandigarh, had gone to
Pakistani with a 'jatha' (group) of Sikh pilgrims for Baisakhi
celebrations.
While the rest of the 1,718 pilgrims returned, the
Sikh family comprising Sunil Singh, 38, his wife Sunita, 27, and
children Umer Singh, 10 and daughter Huma Kaur, 9, did not return.
Members of the 'jatha' told police that the family was last seen at the
Panja Sahib shrine near Rawalpindi on April 12.
The jatha of pilgrims had left for Pakistan by train on April 11 and returned after a 10-day trip.
It is the first incident of its kind in Pakistan, The Express Tribune newspaper of Pakistan reported.
The
Evacuee Trust Property Board in Pakistan - a government body
responsible for arranging accommodation and security for Sikh pilgrims,
confirmed that the family of four was missing, the newspaper said.
The
missing family, coming from a poor rural background, had gone as part
of a group of 384 pilgrims who were taken to Pakistan by the Bhai
Mardana Yaadgar Kirtan Darbar Society of Ferozepur.
Society
president Harpal Singh Bhullar said the passports, other documents and
some belongings of the family were found in a room in Gurdwara Dehra
Sahib in Pakistan.
Punjab Police, which sent its teams to
Sadhanwala village near Ferozepur and to Rajasthan (from where Sunil
Singh and his family had come eight years ago), said that the entire
matter was being investigated.
"Our teams are probing the matter," Ferozepur Deputy Inspector General A.S. Chahal said.
Sunil
used to work as a labourer with farmers in Sadhanwala village. His wife
also did labour work while their children studied in a government
school. The family lived in a two-room dharamsala given to them by the
village panchayat.
Police investigation reveal that Sunil arrived
in the village around eight years back claiming he was the son of one
Gian Singh who had eloped with a girl from the village over four decades
back. Sunil expressed his wish to settle down in the village after
coming from Rajasthan, village headman Harjit Singh said.
Sadhanwala
village is located close to army areas, close to the India-Pakistan
international border, and intelligence agencies and police are taking
the matter quite seriously.
"The issue has been brought to the notice of the ministry of home affairs," Amritsar-rural police chief Jasdeep Singh said.