Daily Times

RAWALPINDI: Parents of three missing children have expressed dissatisfaction over police’s investigation process to recover the minors and alleged that the concerned police officers at the Waris Khan Police Station are not taking the case seriously.

Aftab Hussain, father of the missing children said, “Our three kids named as Shehnawar Hussain, eight, Zuhra Bibi, four, and Farhan, five, went missing on June 15. Initially the locals were saying that the kids drowned in the drainage water. Rescue teams carries out a search operation to recover the kids, however, they failed and later claimed that the kids did not drown there after all.”

The bereaved father maintained that after the rescue officials’ report, they filed a complaint with the local police to trace the kids. He claimed that they had also nominated two suspects in their application but the police officers were not taking the case seriously.

Aftab Hussain added that the police had so far neither registered FIR into the incident nor arrested the nominated accused for investigation.

“We called the investigation officer again and again but he did not give us time to meet,” he alleged.

Waris Khan Police Station Investigation Officer Zahid Khan said, “We were busy due to the election activities. I will summon the accused and will investigate the matter according to merit.”

The complainant and accused also had a land dispute before the incident.

“A skull was found during the search operation whose sample had been collected, after taking samples from parents. It will soon be sent for a DNA test,” Zahid Khan added.

Rescue 1122 Spokesperson Usman Gujjar said, “Maximum limit of the dead body is six to seven days in water, after that the dead body comes up to the surface of the water. We have conducted operations until Chakwal but did not find the dead bodies. If they drowned in the drainage water, at least one of them should be found which means that they did not drown.”

Published in Daily Times, July 15^th 2018.