Punjab’s missing children

The epidemic of child kidnappings in Punjab has reached such alarming proportions that even the Supreme Court has been forced to take notice. So far this year, 767 children have been abducted, mainly from larger cities in the province. At a hearing of the case in the Supreme Court this week, the police showed that their only policy for dealing with this horrifying trend is to bury its head in the sand. The report presented to the court by the police admitted that many of the children have not been recovered, prompting Justice Saqib Nisar to say that the responsibility for this lies foremost with the police. In the last six years, 6,793 children have been abducted in the province, according to the police report, out of which nearly 600 still have not been recovered. Just last week, the IG Police Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera tried to play down the rash of kidnappings saying that in most cases the children have left their houses because of domestic violence or other personal reasons. If that is indeed what is happening, it shouldn’t prove too difficult for the police to track them down – and yet that has proven beyond their abilities.

The policy devised by the IG Police to deal with child abductions does not inspire much confidence either. He has announced that every SHO would be bound to immediately lodge an FIR after receiving an application by parents of their child being abducted. That this most basic duty of a police officer needs to be spelled out in a special policy only shows the lethargy of the police. The policy has also called for snooker clubs and video game arcades to be monitored and action launched against ‘professional’ beggars. Quite what harassing poor people living on the streets or watching children playing games has to do with tackling kidnapping was left unexplained. The police in Punjab should have learned what happens when they are negligent after the horrifying case in Kasur last year when hundreds of children were molested for years and the authorities turned a blind eye to complaints. Children are among the most vulnerable in our society and have been used for everything from prostitution to working as child jockeys in the Gulf. Clearly the police feel trafficking might be behind these kidnappings since ransom has usually not been demanded. This is why they have contacted the police in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for help. That help should be provided before we lose even more of our precious next generation.