Mobs thrash three people mistaken for child abductors

Karachi 

The recent public frenzy over reports of child kidnappings does not seem to be abating as, on Friday, three men fell victim to mob justice in separate incidents in the city after people mistook them for kidnappers, Geo News reported.

As per reports, three separate incidents took place in different parts of Karachi and all three involved violent mobs thrashing innocent people over child kidnapping suspicions. 

The incidents have apparently been sparked by rumours of widespread child abductions in the city during the past few days, which come in light of the surge in child kidnappings in Punjab over the course of this year. The first victim on Friday was a government official, the second a security guard, while the third one turned out to be a beggar.

In the Lines Area locality, a KMC sweeper identified as Suresh Kumar was beaten by people.

A security guard was thrashed by a mob near Hasan Square. The third man was a beggar who faced vigilante justice in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area.

LEAs plead for restraint

The city police has requested the public not to take the law into their hands. In a statement issued on Thursday, city police chief Mushtaq Ahmed Mehar said reports of a high alert regarding widespread kidnappings of children and women by certain elements were not based on facts.

“There is no truth in children being kidnapped systematically or in a planned way or dead bodies being recovered,” he said.

He added that false information was being spread with a malafide intention to create panic in the minds of parents and to discredit the efforts of police and Rangers. “Such unverified and untruthful information is vehemently denied as it is not based on facts.”  Maher requested that people should not pay any heed to such rumours.