From our correspondent
REGGIO EMILIA “My husband Ivan had often repeated this to Saman’s father, more serious than joking: “Look, if you don’t send your daughter to school sooner or later the fighters will come to get you”. But he, Shabbar, replied evasively. Once claiming that the girl was already taking online classes from a Pakistani institute. Another saying that the schools nearby were not suitable for her, but that they were still thinking about where to enroll her. Now suddenly we discover that it was all lies. And no, we didn’t know anything about the marriage that Saman had been imposed with a cousin who lives in Pakistan, the reason why she had moved away from home and turned to social services ”. Now Manuela Bartoli, a feisty woman in her fifties who, together with her husband Ivan, runs a farm in Novellara, in the Reggio area, says she is “hallucinated. I did not believe that in that family there was such a closure, brooded in the house, impossible to intercept ». Manuela is sitting on a small table in the large courtyard beyond which there are dozens of greenhouses, almost all of which are intended for the cultivation of watermelons. In the distance – it will be 3 pm – you can see the silhouettes of some carabinieri who keep molecular dogs on a leash.
–
They have been looking for Saman Abbas since morning, eighteen year old of Pakistani origin who disappeared into thin air. The last to see it was Manuela, on an unspecified day between 20 and 25 April. The terrible hypothesis made by the Reggio prosecutor Isabella Chiesi and the carabinieri of the provincial department is that she was killed. An investigative trail that took shape after watching a video taken by the cameras placed by the Bartoli in the company to avoid thefts. The video, on April 29, shows three people who at 7:15 pm bring with them two shovels, a bucket with a blue bag, a crowbar and another tool and head behind the Abbas house, in the same agricultural estate in front of them. to the provincial road. Then they return at 21.50. About three hours in which the crime may have been committed.
–
It is not certain that the video portrays Saman’s father and two other people from the large family. But the suspicious fact is that all the Abbas – some before and some after – have disappeared since May 1st. Shabbar left Italy with his wife and took a flight to Pakistan. Only him and her, while the daughter’s name does not appear among the passengers. The little that is known about the young woman comes from the social services of Novellara to which she had turned, last October 27, because she wanted to oppose the marriage arranged by her father with a cousin at home. It is the mayor Elena Carletti who tells that “she was placed in protection in a center in the Bolognese area, however, voluntarily left on April 11 to go home”. Perhaps to regain possession of his own documents kept by his father. But here the mystery begins. Starting with the disappearance of all the Abbas, a surprise also for Ivan Bartoli, who was contacted by Shabbar with a synthetic WhatsApp message in which “he told me he had to reach a dying sister”. On May 5, the real alarm goes off, after the carabinieri are informed by the Municipality of the decision of the girl, meanwhile an adult, to leave the center.
–
While the research continues unabated, the Prosecutor speaks of “investigators to be searched through international cooperation”, alerting the Pakistani authorities. Shabbar has been working for fifteen years with Ivan who defines him as «serious and scrupulous. He brought his brother, wife and two cousins here. ‘ In the spring of 2016, Saman also arrived. Still impressed, Manuela Bartoli says that “In a few months he learned Italian” well enough to pass the middle school exam without difficulty. The Bartolos also say that “mother and daughter were always at home”. And it was difficult that, “after the age of 17, Saman could be seen outside, in the garden.” Darkening, Manuela adds that Saman had asked her to insist with Shabbar “for enrollment in high school.” And at Ivan’s urges came other excuses like “my daughter is too smart for the schools nearby.” One morning Saman asked Manuela to buy her ‘pens, pencils and notebooks. I want to write and draw ». Manuela took everything: “Some time later he showed me the drawings, they were really beautiful.”
–
–
May 27, 2021 (change May 27, 2021 | 23:21)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
–
