Custody battle involved Lahore-based girl returns to the UK

LONDON - Molly Campbell, the Isle of Lewis schoolgirl who was taken to Pakistan by her father four years ago amid a tug-of-love battle between her divorced parents, has returned to Britain.

The teenager, who moved to Lahore at the age of 12 after a highly publicized disappearance from her school in the Isle of Lewis, is understood to have wanted to return to the UK permanently for some time.

She flew from Lahore last week with her brother Adam, 20.

Molly, also known as Misbah Rana, has spent the past four years living in Lahore with her father Sajad Rana, where she attended an Islamic school.

She has not returned to Scotland but is instead staying with her 22-year-old sister Tahmina, who has also now returned to live in England with her two-year-old girl.

Molly’s mother Louise Fairlie, who still lives on Lewis, is staying with her two daughters following 16-year-old Molly’s return.

It is understood that Molly has returned to the UK with her father’s approval.

In 2006, Louise Campbell - now Louise Fairlie - gave an emotional press conference in which she said that Molly had been abducted by her father and expressed fears that she might be forced into an arranged marriage.

At the time, Fairlie was living with her partner Kenny Campbell and their six-month-old daughter in the Lewis fishing village of Tong.

It was later established that Molly had been picked up by her sister Tahmina outside her school and the two had flown to Glasgow, where they had met their father and boarded a plane to Lahore.

The following day, Interpol launched a search for the missing teenager. However, when Molly was tracked down in Pakistan she insisted that her name was not Molly but Misbah, and claimed that life at her mother’s council flat in Lewis had been a “living hell”.

“It was my choice,” she said. “I asked my sister if I could go with her. I would like to stay in Pakistan with my father.”

She said she was happy to have been reunited with her sister Tahmina and brother Adam, who were also living with her father in Pakistan.

After Molly’s disappearance in 2006, Fairlie launched a legal battle to get her daughter back to Scotland.

Former Glasgow MP Mohammad Sarwar flew out to Pakistan to act as a mediator between the warring parties.

However, in January 2007 Fairlie reached an out-of-court settlement with her ex-husband in which the couple agreed that Molly should stay in Pakistan while allowing her mother visiting rights and regular telephone calls. (ANI)