‘After a 7-year hunt, spending £200k I know I won’t see my little girl again’
REAL LIFE: FATHER’S ABDUCTION AGONY
A DAD says he has lost all hope of getting his kidnapped girl back.
British-born doctor Safraz Khan has spent more than
£200,000 in seven years trying to find his daughter Aamina.
She was snatched by her mother and taken to Pakistan in
2011 following a bitter custody battle which he won.
Safraz, 49, has since spent hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to track down his “beloved daughter”.
He even gained backing from the High Court.
But he is now teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and can no longer afford to fund his “needle in a haystack” search.
He told the Daily Star Sunday: “I have given seven years to find my baby, flying pretty much every year to search the streets for her.
“I now have to face the fact that it is likely I will never see her again. I feel like I’m letting her down.
“She has just turned 13. She’s becoming a young adult, and the last time I saw her she was six.
“She must have changed so much and I have missed it all.”
He added: “I have thrown everything at this. It has made me ill with stress and I have explored every single avenue, but I am all out of ideas.
“I’m devastated. I just hope one day Aamina knows how much I tried, knows how much I love her, how much I miss her.
“Goodness knows what lies she has been told about me, it breaks my heart. I don’t know what else to do.”
Safraz, from Croydon, south London, last saw Aamina in August 2012 when he agreed to let her spend two weeks with her mum Hamma Fazal Karim Dar.
Hamma was still living at their family home in nearby Morden, and Safraz was desperate to keep relations with Hamma cordial for Aamina’s sake.
It was the first time he had allowed Aamina to stay with her mother since their arranged marriage fell apart.
But it proved to be his biggest regret as he has not seen his daughter since.
Safraz said: “Her mum was incredibly bitter that the courts had sided with me. She planned to steal her.”
Phone records showed that members of Hamma’s family had helped her to kidnap Aamina.
Safraz took his case to the High Court where judges backed him. They placed a location order on Hamma’s relatives, which means they must alert Safraz if they move.
But the order is now due to expire and he has no money left to apply for it to be renewed.
He said: “Aamina is slipping further and further away. I can’t help but think if this had been the other way around – a dad stealing his daughter – then questions would have been raised about how safe that child was in his care.
“I think all the stops would have been pulled out the other way around.”
Despairing Safraz added: “I can’t do any more.
“I have this awful sinking feeling that I am just never going to see my daughter ever again. I am a broken man.”
A Met Police spokesman confirmed that the missing person case remains open.