Triple talaq petitioner Ishrat Jahan claims her children have been kidnapped, police trace them to husband

Ishrat Jahan, one of the five petitioners in the triple talaq case, claimed on Thursday that her children had been kidnapped. According to Times Now, she has reached Golabari Police Station in Howrah, West Bengal to register a complaint about the alleged kidnapping of her 13-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son. [caption id=“attachment_3994629” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Ishrat Jahan. Youtube screengrab[/caption] Ishrat told ANI that she last saw her children at 11.15 am on Thursday. She also accused her brother and his wife of the kidnapping. She had written to the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday, seeking security for herself and her children after allegedly facing threats from her in-laws and the neighbours, following the Supreme Court verdict against triple talaq. “Ishrat and her children are being subjected to abuses and threats by her neighbours and some of her in-laws who also stay at Pilkhana in Howrah, the same locality where she lives with her children,” Ishrat’s legal advisor Nazia Elahi Khan, had said. “I have written a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking protection for me and my children,” Ishrat had told PTI adding that copies of the letter have also been forwarded to the Howrah City Police Commissionerate and the local Golabari police station. According to NDTV, Ishrat’s in-laws and neighbours were calling her a “gandi aurat” (bad woman) for challenging Islamic laws. “I’m being subjected to abuse ever since the judgment was passed. I’m being accused of being a bad person…Does someone become a bad person if she speaks for her rights?” Ishrat had asked on Friday. Ishrat’s husband had divorced her over the phone from Dubai in 2014 by uttering ‘talaq’ thrice, a practice that was struck down by the Supreme Court on 22 August. Following this incident, Ishrat challenged the Muslim practices of polygamy, triple talaq (talaq-e-bidat) and nikah halala, which lead to the historic triple talaq verdict . According to ANI, police have traced the Ishrat’s children. The Officer in-charge Golabari PS said that Ishrat’s husband took both kids to a relative’s place in Bardhaman this morning. Howrah city police commissioner DP Singh added, “The children said they were with their father on their own volition.”   With inputs from PTI