Dhaka, Oct 03: A two-year-old Bangladeshi girl kidnapped from a border village returned today from India after more than a month of legal wrangling, a women's activist who helped arrange the rescue said. Arifa Ali, who was abducted on August 31, was flown back from Kolkata and will be reunited with her parents later today, Salma Ali, head of the Bangladesh Women Lawyers Association, told reporters. The girl was snatched from her home in Naodanga village of Kurigram district, 240 kilometers north of Dhaka, allegedly by an Indian criminal who had a business dispute with her father Aiyub Ali, a smuggler. Bangladeshi border guards immediately informed their Indian counterparts who arrested the kidnapper and recovered the girl the next day. But legal redtape delayed the repatriation. Arifa's case sparked an uproar in the media here, with her mother appealing for authorities to speed up the process.
An Indian court in the town of Coochbehar intervened and local police took Arifa by train to Kolkata where they handed her over yesterday to Bangladeshi diplomat Touhid Hossain, Salma Ali said.
Ali, who spent several days in India trying to secure the girl's release, said she promised the court she would bring Arifa back to India if the girl is summoned over the kidnapping case.
Bureau Report