A deeply disturbing incident that has shocked civil society has come to light in Pakistan. A French woman and her five children were rescued from a ruined, narrow room where they had been held captive, isolated, and subjected to severe physical and mental torture for nearly 11 years. The horrific confinement took place in Bara, a remote area within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The family, entirely cut off from the outside world, was finally liberated due to a courageous escape and rescue mission initiated by one of the woman’s sons.
According to diplomatic and official sources, the 54-year-old French citizen, Sylvie Yasmina, married a Pakistani national in 2003 while he was residing illegally in Australia. Following their marriage, the couple lived in Australia for a few years and had two children. However, in 2014, the husband moved the family back to Pakistan, marking the beginning of a dark and harrowing chapter for Yasmina. Upon arriving in Pakistan, the husband locked his wife and children inside a dilapidated, cramped room, completely cutting off their interaction with the outside world and placing them under severe domestic confinement.
The family’s grueling ordeal finally ended when one of Yasmina’s sons managed to evade his father’s watch and slipped out of the locked room. Defying the odds, the boy managed to find his way to the nearest police station with the help of local residents and detailed the horrific abuse inflicted upon his mother, his siblings, and himself. Shocked by the boy’s testimony, local police units immediately coordinated an emergency raid on the house in Bara. Officers discovered Yasmina and her five children living in deplorable conditions with visible physical injuries, successfully rescued them, and immediately took the abusive husband into custody.
