8-year-old Dua was missing for more than a year. Her mother had taken her and her siblings to a visit to a doctor at a hospital. The children were sitting in the waiting area while their mother went in for her checkup. When the mother came back, Dua was nowhere to be found. They searched all over the hospital but ultimately failed to find her. The hospitals security cameras showed Dua walking downstairs however there was no additional footage. More than a year after her origi

11-year-old Ghulam Mustafa ran away from home and was missing for more than 2 months. His mother had passed away recently, and the boy along with his infant younger brother were left alone with their father. His father, struggling to make ends meet and unable to take care of the younger child, gave him away to a relative. Ghulam Mustafa was so distraught over losing his brother that he ran away. After roaming the streets for some time, he was picked up by the police. Not want

13-year-old Ghulam Qadir is differently abled. He lives in a village on the outskirts of Karachi. He spends part of the year at home and part of the year at a madrasa in rural Sindh.  Once, while returning home from the madrasa, he got separated at a roadside stop and was missing for 2 months.  We are not sure exactly what happened to him next. Someone probably took him to Karachi and he might have been on the streets for some time, and then at a shrine. Eventually he  was ta

10-year-old Luqman stole money from his home and ran away. He might have been lured by somebody who won his trust, or blackmailed him. He remained missing for 1 week. According to Luqman, after leaving home, he ended up at the Ibrahim Hyderi harbor, where a friendly fishermen invited him to spend the night in his boat and then robbed him of the money he had stolen from home. This story raises many questions and doubts. Ibrahim Hyderi is quite far away from the boy’s home and

When Ubaid was 10 years old, he was abducted and remained missing for 18 days, but luckily the abductors let him go after some kind of commotion.  One day, he had gone to the nearby market where two young men approached him, chatted with him and bought him some food. They convinced him to take a ride in their car and abducted him. They took him to a house and kept him locked up for 2 weeks. Then they moved him to another location. Eventually, after a few more days, the boy sa

9-year-old Riaz ran away from home after being beaten by his father, and after living on the streets of Karachi for several days, he climbed on the back of a bus and arrived in the city of Hyderabad. On the streets, he became acquainted with some older boys who introduced him to drugs and, we suspect, there might have been some sexual abuse. He had been living at a shrine in Hyderabad for some weeks when Roshni found him and brought him back.  Riaz’s family is extremely poor

Wajiha is an orphan, having lost both parents when she was a baby. She lives with her maternal uncles and aunts: her mamoo, khala and khaloo.  One day she went to the neighborhood shop but the shop was closed, so she went farther to find another shop and got lost in the similar looking streets. She wandered the streets for a while, then a man approached her and walked with her, but she got frightened and ran away.  After a long and traumatic experience on the streets, she end

8-year-old Yasir was missing for more than 4 months. He was finally found from a government shelter home in Faisalabad. It was revealed that a neighborhood youth had abducted him and taken him to an unknown location in Karachi.  Details of the abduction are vague. It appears that he somehow escaped from the abductor. He was seen getting off the train in Faisalabad alone and was taken into custody by police, and handed over to the shelter home. Roshni Helpline eventually locat

9-year-old boy Ansar lives near Landhi train station in Karachi. He has 3 brothers and 2 sisters. His father makes samosas and sells them on the street.  Ansar dropped out of school due to financial constraints and spends his time at home, helps with his father’s business, and roams around the neighborhood with his friends and siblings. One day, while Ansar was at the train station, a friendly man approached him and enticed him to get on the train, and took him to Lahore.  It

9-year-old Abdul Qadir lives with his mother and siblings at the home of his maternal uncle. His parents are separated. The boy does not go to school and works at his uncle’s small shop in the neighborhood. They live near the Ibrahim Hyderi harbor.  One day, Abdul Qadir was scolded by his uncle and he was so upset that he decided to run away. He left from his uncle’s shop and started wandering the streets. Eventually he found himself in unknown surroundings and got scared. He