"I was in the car," the two-year-old girl, unaware of her flight from Kolkata, told journalists after she arrived at Zia International Airport, cradled in the arms of Salma Ali, executive director of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA).

Arifa was at the heart of media attention after she was abducted into Cooch Bihar in the Indian state of West Bengal on August 25 by an Indian smuggler, Noor Jamal, from her frontier Naodanga village in Kurigram apparently on a row with her father Ayub Ali, also a smuggler.

The Indian Border Security Force (BSF) rescued the girl and held her abductor with the help of police on September 4, following a request from the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) as Arifa's father lodged a complaint with the border guards. A Cooch Bihar court sent Jamal to jail.

"The Deputy High Commission in Kolkata and the West Bengal government helped us a lot to send her back," Salma said of the procedure that might take more time if they were not cooperative.

Arifa will be kept in a BNWLA shelter at Agargaon until her parents take her back. Her father is likely to reach Dhaka this morning.

"Arifa has skin diseases and needs medical checkup. We are also thinking about her safety at home," Salma said.

The Indian magistrate wanted to hand Arifa over to her parents, but her father did not appear before court for fear of arrest, as he is a listed smuggler, she said.

"As I was in Kolkata to participate in a programme on September 22, I wanted to take her back home," said the beaming lawyer who stayed in the capital of West Bengal on extended visa to fight the legal battle to clear the way for Arifa's return to Bangladesh. "We have won the weeklong legal battle. I am happy. Thanks, everybody," Salma poured out her feelings to the journalists.

Despite Durga Puja holidays, the immigration authorities in Kolkata kept their office open for issuing an "exit permit" for Arifa as she passed her last day abroad visiting the puja mandaps and roaming the bustling West Bengal capital with Salma, official news agency BSS adds.

"Arifa's life in India seemed to be without worries and the Indian police or the nursing home officials in Kolkata always found her cheerful although she wanted to go back to her mother and brothers," Salma said quoting Arifa's custodian in India.

Arifa cried -- not wanting to let go two Indian policewomen, who were with her for the past two days before they left her at the Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, where the lawyer received the girl at 2:30pm Thursday upon a court order.

Arifa was taken to Kolkata from Cooch Bihar after 17 hours of hectic train journey.