A dramatic rescue operation by Pakistani law enforcement has freed a 54-year-old French national and her five children from more than a decade of ongoing abuse and captivity at the hands of the woman’s husband, authorities confirmed this week.
Local police officials shared details of the case with BBC Urdu, outlining how the ordeal began back in 2014, when Sylvie Yasmina and her family relocated from Australia to the remote mountain town of Bara, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. According to Yasmina’s formal statements to investigators, her Pakistani husband had held the entire family confined against their will since the cross-country move, subjecting them to daily physical and psychological violence. For 11 years, Yasmina said she was completely cut off from any outside contact, with no ability to reach out to friends, family or French consular officials for help.
The breakthrough in the case came when one of the couple’s older children managed to sneak out of the family’s residence undetected and file a formal complaint with local police. Acting on the tip, law enforcement officers launched a surprise raid on the property, where they made a harrowing discovery: Yasmina and all five of her children were being held in a cramped, severely run-down room, with visible bruising across their bodies from repeated assault.
Investigators have confirmed that two of the children, who were born before the family moved to Pakistan, have missed more than a decade of formal education. The three younger children, all born in Pakistan after the 2014 move, were never enrolled in school at all, leaving them completely deprived of access to education.
Following the rescue, Yasmina and her children were transferred to a secure women’s support shelter in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where they are receiving medical care and social support. Police have confirmed that the family plans to return to France to rebuild their lives after their years of captivity. Yasmina’s husband was taken into police custody immediately following the raid, though authorities have not yet released his public identity. Investigators also noted that he had been living illegally in Australia when he and Yasmina first met, and the pair married in 2003, residing in Australia for 11 years before relocating to Pakistan.
In her statement to police, portions of which have been released by local media, Yasmina described the constant suffering her family endured. “We were deprived of our freedom. My husband didn’t take care of us the way he should as a husband and the father of my children. He beats us and put pressure on our lives on a daily basis,” she wrote. “I felt that my future was already ruined, the future of the children would also be ruined.”