Two Missing Pakistani Girls Thought To Be Kidnapped Had Actually Run Away From Home... To Meet BTS

There’s nothing wrong with loving your favorite K-Pop artist, but sometimes that love can go a little too far, such as in the case of a couple of Pakistani teens.

The two girls, aged 13 and 14, went missing from their Karachi, Pakistan home on January 7. As reported by the father of the 13-year-old, Mohammed Junaid, his daughter’s older friend came over to visit while he was at home. When he returned home from a trip, his family told him that the girls had gone outside; when he searched for them, he couldn’t find them anywhere.

The 14-year-old’s father then came over to search for both of the girls, and when neither of them were found after a couple of hours, Junaid assumed that they had been abducted or involved in some other kind of foul play by unknown assailants.

Soon afterwards, the police became involved. They performed a search of the 13-year-old’s home, and that was when it was discovered that the girls had been planning to travel to South Korea to meet BTS.

The plans involved train timetables and other data that suggested the girls may have run off on their own. A look into their WhatsApp accounts and deleted browsing history further confirmed the growing suspicions that they’d left of their own accord. Searches such as “what to avoid in South Korea” and what types of clothes they would need to wear there were among the browsing history.

After an aggressive search for the two teens, they were found a few days later in Lahore, a city in Pakistan over 1,200km (~745 miles) away from their home, where they had traveled by train. They were found already in police custody and in “miserable condition” after their journey.

The girls were hiding themselves to be unnoticed or overlooked. They were disguised and garbed in a way [so as to look like boys], according to the constable who found them.

— Railways Police spokesperson

When asked about why they had decided to run away, the two teens complained about their parents’ “indifferent attitude” towards their interests, and that they wanted to make a life of their own.

It isn’t a surprise that two teenagers took this risk because ‘stans’ are capable of doing this for their idols. But if we had more safe organized fan-girling spaces, younger fans could engage openly and freely with each other about their favorites instead of taking such risks.

— Rabia Mehmood (culture journalist)

Thankfully, this story ended with the girls safe and sound, but it’s easy to imagine what kind of trouble or danger the two young teens could have ended up in. We hope that they’re both able to engage in their love for BTS in a safer and supportive way in the future!

Source: Firstpost