French woman, her five kids rescued in Pakistan

French national Sylvie Yasmina, 54, and her five children have been rescued in Pak after she alleg­ed Pakistani husband held th­em captive and abused them for 12 years. Police arrested the suspect after one of the couple’s sons escaped and alerted authorities, prompting a raid on their home in Bara, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Police found the family in a cramped, dilapidated room with bruises on their bodies. Yasmina alleged her husband physically and mentally abus­ed the family daily and prevented them from contacting the outside world after they moved from Australia to Pakistan in 2014.

Police said the couple married in 2003 and lived in Australia before relocating to Pakistan with their two older children. Yasmina said the younger three children were born in Pakistan and never attended school. She and her children have been moved to a women’s shelter in Peshawar and plan to return to France.