Kidnapped Scot released after 'ten years of hell' with Pakistan captors

A YOUNG Scot yesterday spoke of her relief at being reunited with her family after a ten-year ordeal as a hostage in Pakistan.

Naheeda Bi, 28, was kidnapped by two men at Islamabad airport in April 2000 as she was returning to Scotland on her own from a visit to relatives in Pakistan.

She was initially held in a dark windowless room for more than two months, as her captors discussed a ransom.

The kidnappers then transferred her by lorry to buildings in the desert, where she met her uncle, Masood, who had also been taken by kidnappers at the airport.

Talk of a ransom ceased and she was put in a room with around 20 other captives. All were forced to work making munitions.

She told a daily newspaper: "They treated us badly. People would be dragged by the hair from one place to another, they would be verbally abused and beaten."

Ms Bi suffered from vomiting and diarrhoea in the unsanitary conditions.

Her head was shaved by her captors and when she was first kidnapped they sedated her by injecting tranquillisers into her feet.

Over the course of the ten years, she was moved between four different camps, occasionally seeing her uncle who was also still a captive.

However, three weeks ago, she was suddenly handed a phone and heard her mother Rabia's voice on the other end of the line.

A few days later, she and her uncle were blindfolded and put in a lorry with some others, then driven to a remote area in the Punjab where they were dropped off.

They made their way to the city of Chakwal, near the Pakistan capital Islamabad, and called Rabia.

Ms Bi was tearfully reunited with her mother and father, Akram, in a hotel in the small town of Dina.

Now back in Glasgow, Ms Bi can hardly believe her ordeal is behind her. "Every day I used to think could be my last and some days I wished that it was over," she said.

"I still cannot believe my hell is over.

"When I wake up, I look around the room twice. Just to make sure that I am really here."

She believes one of the camps was in the Swat Valley.

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said: "We are absolutely delighted that Naheeda has been reunited with her family and are happy to have played a part in her safe return to Glasgow.

"Obviously she has been through a terrible ordeal over the past ten years.

"We will continue to support Naheeda and her family in every way that we can.

"We will continue to liaise with the authorities in Pakistan and with officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to aid them with their ongoing investigations."