Rangers chief, CM urged to ensure safe recovery of abducted minor boy

Child rights activists flay police for failing to find
30-month-old Maaz who was kidnapped in February

Criticising the police for failing to find two-and-a-half-year-old Maaz, who was kidnapped four months ago, child rights activists said on Tuesday that they were concerned over the rise in child abduction cases in the city.

Rana Asif Habib, president of the Initiator Human Development Foundation (IHDF), a child rights body, told a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Tuesday that for the past four months, Maaz’s parents had constantly been in touch with the police, but the police could not recover the child. Maaz’s relatives were also present at the press conference.

On the evening of February 4, Maaz was playing outside his house during loadshedding in the area. After Isha prayers, he went missing and his family started searching him, according to Habib. 

On February 6, Maaz’s father registered a case at New Karachi Industrial Area Police Station.

“But due to the police’s negligence and lack of investigation, Maaz’s parents are still waiting for their young boy,” he said.

While discussing the trend of child abductions, Habib said that abductions of children were not a new phenomenon at all since hundreds of children mysteriously disappeared from the port city every year.

In cases of abduction and disappearance of children, police discouraged families from registering FIRs, he said. “It is the only reason that we do not have any authentic statistics regarding children who have gone missing.”

Citing statistics of various child rights bodies, including Sahil, Habib said that abduction cases had increased by 19 percent from 1,386 cases in 2015 to 1,654 cases in 2016. On average, five children are being abducted every day.  

He said that the kidnapping of a child was a traumatic experience, both for the parents and the child.

“The abducted children are not just kidnapped for ransom but are also sold into beggary, handed over to organ harvesters or drug smugglers. Sometimes, they are found to have been sold into bounded labour or used for sexual abuses,” Habib said.

“At this moment, when the Government of Sindh has appointed director general, Child Protection Authority, to ensure maximum child protection in the province, practical implementation with an effective and concrete child protection policy is the need of the hour,” he added.  

The IHDF leaders demanded from the director general of the Sindh Rangers and the chief minister to intervene in the matter of Maaz’s abduction and play their role in his safe recovery.