LAHORE: In what appears to be a unique criminal case, a special investigation team of the Lahore police is desperately trying to resolve the six-year-old kidnap case of a woman who is believed to be abducted by a djinn, (a supernatural being). Headed by Lahore Investigation DIG Zeeshan Raza, the team was formedon the directions of the Lahore High Court Chief Justice Aalia Neelam to take up the task of recovering the missing woman, Fouzia Bibi, and submit a report to the court on Sept 18.

The complainant, Hameedan Bibi, the mother of the woman, had claimed that her daughter had suddenly gone missing in May 2019.

She said Fouzia`s in-laws claimed that she had been `kidnapped/taken away` by a djinn, leaving the police groping in the dark since the launch of the FIR.

Lahore Investigation DIG Zeeshan Raza told Dawn the chief justice took `strict notice` of the incident when the police high-ups informed that the woman could not be recovered despite all possible efforts.

In the last hearing on Sept 2, he said, the CJ had directed Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Bilal Siddique Kamyana to appear in person along with the missing woman on Sept 18. The DIG declared it a tough case saying that several `strange` factors associated with this `kidnap` case had baffled the police since the registration of the FIR.

The most irrigating part of the case for investigators was that the in-laws of the woman had kept on insisting that Fouzia was taken away by the djinn.

He said the case had been investigated under the supervision of the two chiefs of the then Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) Lahore Capt Liaqat Ali Malikandthe AsimIftikhar but they failed to trace the woman. He said police also opted for geofencing, a technique that is increasingly used in some challenging cases, to trace the individuals` movements and activities within a specific time frame but to no avail.

Mr Zeeshan said they also obtained the call details records (CDRs) of over 800 mobile phone numbers in order to reach the missing woman.

`We have done polygraph test of many relevant people in this case,` the DIG said adding that the results, however, brought no positive development.

To a question, the police officer said the case may be associated with her `mismatched marriage` as she was 35-year-old while her husband was in his teens.

She might have been forced to marry the young man against her will and this marriage might be the leading factor behind the `incident of kidnap`, he said.

The DIG said police officers questioned many members of the both families including her husband, mother-in-law and other relatives. Some of the family members claimed that the missing woman was unwilling to bear children and used to visit `Hakeems.

Reportedly, she also opted for abortion. Despite this,she later gave birth to a son.

To another question, he said: `It seems the woman had deliberately gone somewhere as she was unhappy with her marriage.

He said the woman had no CNIC, a key point that rendered the police investigators helpless in tracing her. `The woman did not have any record in Nadra database,` he said.

The police investigators also took help from the Punjab Safe City Authority and privately installed cameras besides contacting severallocalresidents.

`Now we have little options to resolve the case, Zeeshan Raza said.

However, he expressed the hope that the police would resolve the case.