It was around the third week of July that Kiran, 7, came to Pak Nagar area in the jurisdictional limits of Misri Shah Police Station with her family.
She had come to visit her relatives after quite a long time. While she was playing with other children of the house she found the main door open and walked into the street. The inmates saw her going outside but did not stop her as it was a routine for the children in the area to play in the street. They started to panic only when the girl did not return, even after a passage of a couple of hours.
A rigorous search was carried out but to no avail.
Initially, everybody thought the girl had lost her way back home but soon they understood that she might have been abducted by some criminal. They reported the incident to a police station and waited for some good news.
Shahid Istaqlal, a relative of Kiran, tells TNS that the family had almost lost hope when they were informed that the girl had reached the Child Protection Bureau in Angoori Bagh. This is a place where runway children, unaccompanied minor beggars and those found working at hazardous working sites are kept. "We have no idea how she got there but the best thing is that she is back and all ok."
Today, the same street from where Kiran had disappeared wears a totally different look. Hardly any unaccompanied child can be seen here. A banner hanging across the street warns of criminal gangs out there to kidnap children. The street vendors who would popularly sell lollies, corn cobs and other edibles have stopped frequenting it.
This is only one example of how panic has gripped the city with an ever-increasing number of missing children being reported in different parts of the city.
Though the police is underplaying the issue, terming social reasons behind the disappearances, the families and relatives of missing children are protesting against the failure of the police to stop these abductions and arrest the gangs involved in this heinous crime.
A report, titled ‘An Analysis of Missing Children Cases (2015-2016),’ prepared by Capital Police Lahore, states that 507 cases of child abduction were registered in Lahore alone between January 1, 2015 to July 16, 2016. Of these, the police claims, 465 cases have been resolved while 42 are still under investigation.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) has taken a suo motu notice of the situation and sought report from Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab on child abductions throughout the province. A two-member bench remarked that despite affected parents’ repeated visits to the police stations, cases about the abduction of their children were not registered. (This might be for the reason that the concerned police officers do not want their service record to be tainted by artificially keeping the numbers lower.)
Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) also referred to the report submitted by police: "It has been highlighted that such abductions are orchestrated with the nefarious object of extracting vital body organs of the abductees; while another attribution is for sexual abuse and/or beggary etc. through the children. That in any case such large scale abduction, if so, of children in a short span of time is a matter of immense concern and alarm."
A Punjab police officer says on condition of anonymity that kidnappings take place on a regular basis but the reasons behind this sudden rise in incidents have to be studied. "General perception is that several police officers who earned out-of-turn promotions in the past and were recently demoted by the SCP, wanted to show it to their superiors that only they could handle such cases. There is a fear that they take children into custody and release them after a couple of days."
He says that during his past postings in the affected areas, he had found some Afghan refugees involved in child abductions and kidnappings for ransom. He challenges the assertion that most children return on their own. "Sometimes it is a condition of release that they will not share the exact details of the incidents including the ransom paid.
"The relatives and acquaintances involved in kidnappings are often pardoned on the pressure of families. In such cases also, it is announced that the children involved were missing and not abducted."
According to Nishat Cheema, Station House Officer (SHO) Badami Bagh, the area worst hit, only 11 children were kidnapped in the year so far, from the jurisdictional limits of Badami Bagh Police Station. "Nine out of these including Amjad Ali, Abdur Rehman, Muhammad Ali, Abdul Razzaq, Muhammad Ismail, Sameer Bukhari and Yaseen have returned home safe and sound."
The SHO says these people had run away from their houses because of family feuds etc. Some of the kidnapped children went off to Murree, Islamabad and other parts of country. When the FIRs were registered and interrogation begun, they started returning.
Cheema alleges the media is spreading disinformation and fear. He rejects any involvement of Afghan refugees and Pashtuns in such incidents, saying these allegations could only fan hatred and discrimination on racial basis. "No child has been killed and not a single kidney was extracted from the body of any child living in the limits of Badami Bagh."
On the other hand, the Capital Police Lahore report points out that the unchecked migration from rural areas and FATA has resulted in deterioration of law and order situation in Lahore district.
The report also singles out hot spots such as Railway Station, Data Darbar area, Badami Bagh and Minar-e-Pakistan’s neighbourhood from where most children disappear.
It further states that 42 cases are under investigation whereas 43 children have not been recovered so far. Each case has been thoroughly examined and it was found that five missing/kidnapped children had left home due to the harsh behaviour of their parents, another five left home because of family disputes, four were put in madrassas and fled from there. Four of the 43 missing children were mentally retarded, 12 left home but never returned.
Reportedly, two cases were related to house servants, eight were a result of old enmity and three of them left home to marry of their own will.
The report adds that 63 per cent cases registered under the head of kidnapping of minors under section 363 PPC had to be cancelled as being false, after investigations. The children in these cases were missing and not kidnapped. The examination of data reveals that most of the accused involved in these cases were either relatives or those known to the complainants and ransom call was never received in any of these cases.
As per age-wise analysis mentioned in the report, 44 per cent missing/kidnapped children fall in the age group 11-15, 34 per cent in the age group 6-10 and the remaining under 22 per cent below the age of six. Sixty-six per cent of the missing/kidnapped children according to the same report were male whereas 34 per cent were female.
Muhamamd Shabbir, father of Shafiq Mughal, tells TNS that his son was kidnapped and recovered by Islamabad Police from Islamabad. "My son did not run away from home as claimed by the local police initially. He was kidnapped."
Shabbir, who seems scared to divulge details, says it was only when the FIR was lodged that his son was recovered from Islamabad and handed over to them by the Badami Bagh police.