Imprisoned father who kidnapped daughter refuses to reveal her whereabouts

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
11/7/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Tearful mother fears her daughter was sold to family in husband's native Pakistan

A father who kidnapped his three-year-old daughter from Britain, took her to his native Pakistan - and refuses to reveal her whereabouts, has left a devastated mother who has no idea where she is on what would have been her sixth birthday.

A computer-generated image of what Atiya might look like today.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Former insurance salesman, 28-year-old Razwan Ali Anjum took little Atiya, the daughter he had with Gemma Wilkinson to his native Pakistan, hissing, "You'll never see your daughter again." Anjum returned to the United Kingdom less than two weeks later, where he was promptly arrested - but he has refused to divulge his daughter's location since.

A global inquiry spanning three countries has not revealed a single clue, leaving Wilkinson fearing the worst. Wilkinson says that Atiya may have been sold by her father to another family living in Pakistan or Iran.

The 32-year-old Wilkinson, from Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, has not seen Atiya since her third birthday in 2009. Wilkinson sobbed as she pleaded for information about what happened to her daughter.

"I pray she's okay but we don't have any proof that she's okay and no proof she is even still alive," she said. "It's been discussed that she could have been sold, but I don't want to believe it.

"As far as I'm aware she hasn't been with any family member so I can only assume she's with strangers.

"To know that she's safe, to know that she's being looked after, to know where she is. A child doesn't disappear, doesn't evaporate. A child is put somewhere and people know - and that information needs to be talked about."

Wilkinson met Anjum in 2003 while they were on the same college course at Oldham Business Management School and Atiya was born on November 7, 2006.

Gemma ended her on-off relationship with Anjum in 2008 due to him being possessive and controlling and he swore revenge on her. To this day, Anjum dismisses Wilkinson as being little more than his daughter's "birth mother."

During an access visit on the youngster's birthday he said he was taking Atiya to Southport. Anjum instead took Atiya to Lahore where he claimed she was staying for a week with relatives.

Atiya was supposed to share a flight with her grandmother on November 16, but the grandmother came back alone. Anjum himself returned to the UK a few days later without his daughter and he was subsequently arrested.

"It's been an absolute nightmare. When I close my eyes I see Atiya. I say good night to her every night before bed," Wilkinson says.

"I just want Atiya back home but her father's just not prepared to back down - he's not prepared to work with the police. He's enjoying playing his controlling mind games.

"It's just sick."

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Kidnapping, Pakistan, birth mother, imprisoned, bad dad

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1 - 2 of 2 Comments

RBNSN
6 months ago
I am a non-Muslim living in a Muslim country. Although there are good Muslims, I have to tell you this. Most Muslims take pride in being able to marry a non-Muslim. Especially the men, most of them have a very tribalistic attitude towards their religion. My countries constitution proscribes special privileges to the majority race, and I think it is the only constitution on earth which defines what are the characteristics of the majority race. If you convert out of Islam, you are no longer part of the majority race and your privileges are stripped. This is what is keeping most people clinging on to Islam. There are also people converting into Islam by marrying Muslims, you can't legally marry a Muslim unless you become a Muslim. In a marriage performed under Civil laws, if on of the spouses decides to convert to Islam, all subsequent legal processes come under the preview of the Syariah courts, which give the Muslim party default upper hand(note also that non-Muslims can't become judges or lawyers in Syariah system.). Most Muslims take pride in marrying a non-Muslim, because it means that their size has increased. Two months ago, a national broadsheet newspaper printed on its frontpage, a news with photo, about Muslim guy who "successfully" married a Chinese from PRC. Most Muslims are granted scholarships to study in Western countries, where there have been a number of failed marriages with non-Muslims. But many of these non-Muslim mothers cannot have any access to their children once the marriage is broken. When Imran Khan got married to Jemmima Goldsmith a British woman, most of his fans in Pakistan called it a victory for Islam.What I revealed is the tip of the ICeberg. You must get hold of the constitutions of these Islamic countries, starting with those of Malaysia, Turkey. Malaysia's reads like a textbook on Institutionalised racism.To get better look at Muslim attitudes towards mixed marriages read about the Maria Hertogh riots in Singapore.Perhaps Catholic online can do an article on it. Most non-Muslims don't have any inkling of the discrimination in Muslim countries because there is no freedom of speech here, most newpapers are aligned to the ruling party, and the ruling party is controlled by the Muslim majorit. My humble request to Catholic online is to get in touch non-Muslim immigrants in America from Muslim countries to get a better picture on minority rights.
Fr Bill
6 months ago
Statistically: this kind of behavior occurs almost exclusively outside of real marriage.

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