The two girls were trying to travel to South Korea to meet the popular group BTS.
Two teenage girls who had been reported missing in Pakistan have been found by police, who say the two girls ran away from their homes in an attempt to travel to South Korea to see BTS.
The two girls, aged 13 and 14, went missing on January 7 from the Korangi area in the city of Karachi, according to CNN.
They were found a few days later on January 11, with Abraiz Ali Abbasi, the district's senior police inspector, saying the two girls had run away from their home to travel to South Korea to meet the popular K-pop group. .
Police learned of the girls' plan after searching their homes and discovering a diary.
"In the diary we saw reports about train schedules and that they were planning to elope with another girlfriend (…) who we then interrogated," Abbasi told reporters.
"We started aggressively searching for them and found that they had been taken into custody by the police in the city of Lahore, where they had traveled by train," he continued.Abbasi said that steps are being taken to bring both the girls to Karachi in coordination with the local Lahore police.
It also appealed to parents to "monitor their children's screen time" so they can be more aware of the content they watch online.
"It's no surprise that two teenage girls took this risk because die-hard fans are capable of doing this for their idols," commented culture journalist Rabia Mehmood.
"But if we had more safe organized spaces for fan-girling, younger female fans could engage openly and freely with each other for their loved ones instead of taking such risks," she argued.
K-pop has a huge following around the world, including Pakistan, where its fans span all age groups and genders. BTS posters and albums are sold all over the South Asian country, while Korean dramas are also gaining more and more popularity.
BTS announced in November that they would be going on hiatus for the band members to fulfill their military obligations. Jin, the eldest member of the boy band, started military service on December 13th.
The band is set to be apart until at least 2025, but has stated that its members will use this time to focus on their solo careers.
