Five Bangladeshi women who were trafficked to Pakistan as teenagers and remained missing for decades returned home early Friday, landing at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight. They were located with the assistance of rights workers and reunited with relatives at the airport.
The return was facilitated by the human rights group Khoj, which said the women had been trafficked before and around the 1971 Liberation War and were separated from their families for years without communication or travel documents. The women are Monowara Khatun, Rabeya Bibi, Zayeda, Hajera, and Amena. They were aged between 12 and 16 when taken from Bangladesh.
According to organizers, Pakistani rights activist Oliullah Maruf helped trace the women. Videos documenting names and addresses were used to locate families through district and local authorities. Relatives gathered at the airport to receive them.
Monowara Khatun, originally from Lalmohan in Bhola, went missing in 1971. Now about 65, she had married and lived in Pakistan and has two sons. Rabeya Bibi, from Rangpur’s Kotwali area, is now about 70. Family members said she had been taken to Pakistan as a teenager on the promise of work.
Khoj, formerly known as Desh Fera, said it has helped around 270 trafficked or missing Bangladeshis return from abroad. Organizers said this is the first time five women have returned together from Pakistan.
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