DIG-led team ordered to find 18 missing children

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed a DIG-led special police team to recover 18 children reportedly missing from the city. The court also directed the Sindh inspector general of police to personally look into the matter to ensure safe recovery of the missing children.

Hearing a petition for the recovery of missing children, a division bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto directed a DIG to use all modern devices to locate the whereabouts of the missing children.

A progress report was submitted on behalf of Criminal Investigation Agency DIG Dr Mohammad Amin Yousufzai mentioning details of efforts being taken for the recovery of the missing children. The DIG submitted in the report that police teams had visited several shelter homes being run by non-governmental organisations to locate the missing children. He submitted that the Railways police as well as the IGPs of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Punjab had been issued letters with the list of the missing children to communicate the particulars of the children to their field units.

The SHC was informed that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had also been approached to trace the whereabouts of the missing children and to verify if those children were used in human smuggling. The agency had so far not responded, the court was informed.

The DIG submitted that advertisements had been published in various newspapers with regard to the missing children and TV channels were also approached for telecasting announcements about them.

He submitted that one child, Surgul, had been recovered from a shelter home of a welfare organisation on December 7 and handed over to his parents. The court was informed that criminals arrested for kidnapping children were also being interrogated and their crime data checked.

The SHC directed the police to make all out efforts including the use of modern techniques to ensure that the children were recovered. The court also directed the FIA director general to appear in person and submit a report as to whether these children were used in human smuggling.

The petitioner Roshni Helpline Trust had moved the SHC asking it to issue directives to the police to consider missing children’s cases a cognisable offence and initiate investigations in such cases without any delay.

A counsel for the petitioner had submitted that the whereabouts of 24 children were still unknown and requested the court to direct the police to recover them. The petitioner said the cases of missing children had not been properly investigated and as a result many such children had lost their lives.