MADINAH: An Egyptian overstayer, his two wives and sister were arrested yesterday for leaving the remains of two children outside a mosque in the Al-Aqeeq neighborhood of Madinah.
“The arrests also led to the return of an 11-year-old Afghan girl, who was kidnapped four years ago, to her family,” Col. Muhsin Al-Radadi, spokesman for Madinah police, told Arab News. “The bag containing the remains of the dead children was found by worshippers at the mosque on Saturday.”
The group was arrested after police questioned two women who with several children, including the Afghan girl, were loitering outside a Madinah police station.
“The women told police that their husband had left the bag in the mosque’s premises. They also confessed that one of the children who were with them was kidnapped by their sister-in-law four years ago,” Al-Radadi said.
Police then arrested the husband for concealing information about a death, abandoning bodies in a mosque and overstaying.
“The man said the bodies belonged to his two deformed and chronically ill sons who died of natural causes three years ago. He said he did not arrange a funeral because he was living illegally and instead left the bodies in the attic of his house,” said Al-Radadi.
The man said he left the remains outside the mosque because he was planning to leave the Kingdom for good and did not want to create problems for anyone who may come to stay there after him.
“As part of his return plan, the man asked his wives and sister to surrender to police who would eventually deport them for not having proper residence documents,” said Al-Radadi.
The Afghan girl told Arab News that an Egyptian woman took her to the house of her brother whose name was Muhammad Junaidi. “They did not allow me to go out and used to beat me whenever I asked them about my parents. I tried to run away but they locked me up in the house,” Raziah said.
The Egyptian family later told Raziah that she had no place to go to as her parents had been arrested and deported to Afghanistan. “They changed my name to Duaa and told me that Junaidi would marry me,” she said.
Meanwhile, Raziah’s elder brother, Abdullah, told Arab News that his parents had identified his sister. “She disappeared four years ago after my mother, who sells clothes on sidewalks, sent her with an Egyptian woman who bought some clothes from her. The Egyptian woman told my mother to send Raziah with her because she had forgotten to bring money, but my sister failed to return,” he said.
The Afghan family filed a complaint with the police, but they were unable to trace the woman and the girl.
