DNA reunites couple with son after 13 years

[LahoreEstate]

RAWALPINDI: A couple was reunited on Monday with their son after DNA fingerprinting confirmed the child’s parentage, 13 years after he was stolen from a public hospital in the city.
However, it was not a joyful reunion for the boy who became more attached to his 'foster parents' after spending all his life with them.
Javed Khan, a taxi driver, along with his wife, Yasmeen, took their 13-year-old son, Hamza Ali, into their custody in a sessions court in Rawalpindi.
Hamza, who had been named Haroon Qureshi, was stolen from the nursery of Rawalpindi General Hospital, now Benazir Bhutto hospital, allegedly by Siddiqa Faisal on Dec 24, 1995, when he was only three days old.
The child was produced by Siddiqa and her husband, Faisal Masood, along with the Waris Khan police, in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Amjad Iqbal Ranjah, who was to hear the pre-arrest bail application of the accused. The court put off the hearing till February 14 after the lawyer of the petitioners sought time.
The police had also produced the child in the court of Duty Magistrate Raja Khurram Ali Khan on Sunday after they received the DNA report confirming that Hamza was the son of Yasmeen and Javed. But the parents insisted that they would take the custody of their son in the sessions court.
Hamza was not happy to leave Siddiqa and said asked the police about the legal recourse to avoid going with his actual parents. He was concerned about his studies and future, as he had been getting education in an elite school of the city, whereas his actual father plied taxi to feed his four other sisters and a brother.
Yasmeen gave birth to Hamza in RGH in Dec 1995 but the newborn was stolen from the nursery by a woman, who claimed that he was her paternal nephew. The police had registered an abduction case against an unknown woman and her facilitators.
Meanwhile, the accused in their bail plea maintained they were not nominated in the case and 14 years of delay had created many doubts. They claimed Haroon was their 'real' son.
It was in October last year that the police were informed by a close relative of the accused, Faisal, that his son was not his real child but was stolen from RGH many years ago, said Yusuf Butt, the investigation officer in the case.
He told this reporter that Faisal had two other sons, who were younger to Hamza.

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