An 18-year-old girl, Saman Abbas, has been missing for three months in Novellara, Italy.
Local prosecutors and police fear Saman’s family may have killed her. But after 67 days of searching, neither Saman nor her body has been found.
According to journalist Aliya Salahuddin, Saman’s parents had arranged her marriage with her cousin in Pakistan. Saman approached social services and was sent to live with a protective community.
According to the BBC, Saman had lived under the protection of social services since October, but returned to the family home in Novellara, near Parma, in late April.
Saman wanted to marry Saqib, who lives in a city near Rome. Saqib told the Independent Urdu that Saman’s parents disliked the relationship and they had also threatened him.
According to Saqib, Saman tried hard to convince his parents. Saqib himself spoke to Saman’s mother but she was not ready to accept him.
“We were sure the Italian system would help us,” said Saqib. But the system had its own conditions. They needed Saman’s identity card and other documents that are required for a wedding in Italy. Saman did not have any option so she went back to her home with the intention to make a last effort to persuade her parents and get her documents.
It was April 20 when Saman went to her home in Novellara. Ten days later, on April 30, it was the last time she contacted Saqib via text message. Later, CCTV footage showed Saman leaving the house with her family on the night of April 30, but she was not with them when they returned.
After spending a few days at her home, Saman suspected that she was in danger. Once she sent a voice message to Saqib saying that she heard her parents saying ‘kill her’ and when she asked her mother for an explanation, she replied: “No no it is not about you. This is a girl in Pakistan who ran away, we are talking about her.”
Saqib said that Saman had told him that if he does not get any message from her for a few days then he should understand that there must be something wrong and he should report it to the police.
Saqib did report it to the police. He approached the police in his area. The search operation conducted by the agencies took a few days and there was a bit of negligence, but on May 5, the police arrived at the Saman’s house from the local station of Blakhar Novellara to check. The house was locked and the police got to know that her parents had gone to Pakistan.
No ticket was issued in Saman’s name. The Italian authorities then proceeded with the case.
The local prosecutor named five people in the murder investigation. Saman’s mother, father, uncle and two cousins. The younger brother has been questioned and a cousin is in police custody who was arrested on a bus travelling without documents from Paris to Barcelona in France.
On July 12, the Italian police stopped the search. This does not mean that the case is closed. According to local media, police sources said that the quest was stopped because there was no place left in the area where Saman’s body had not been searched. Saqib is hopeful that there may be a possibility of Saman being alive and that she may have been forcibly kept somewhere.
