Over 950 street children rescued in Rawalpindi

Rawalpindi : The Child Welfare Protection Bureau (CPWB) Rawalpindi had rescued over 950 street children from different areas of the city during the period of last one year and reunited them with their families after necessary mediation.

District Officer CPWB Ali Abid Naqvi told this agency, that with the help of local Police around 100 children under 15 years of age, have been taken into custody during the last one month who were involved in begging in markets and on roads.

He said that they were later handed over to their parents after assuring authorities that they will not force them to beg.

Ali said that at present seventy children were in the custody of the bureau who were being provided with the facility of food, education and shelter at the centre.

He said the CPWB was searching for parents of 12 children who had been taken into custody during various rescue operations in the city.

“The management of the bureau made every effort to find the parents or relatives of the children on the basis of the telephone numbers, addresses and other information provided by them but could not succeed to trace yet,” he said.

The CPWB district officer informed that most of the children were in the custody of the bureau for more than a year which includes Asad son of Juma Khan, Mohsin son of Unknown, unknown son of the unknown, Mastiq son of Jamil, Bilal son of Aslam, Ian son of Saeed, Qasim son of Ali Shah, Wahab son of Daulat, Talib Jan son of Shaheen Shah, Rahat son of Ghulam Haider, Abdullah son of Khameer, and Dil Faraz son of Mazhar.