Daily Times

The police confessed failure in recovery of 18 missing children before a bench of Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.

A two-member bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, was hearing a case regarding the missing children.

The court expressed its displeasure over the police performance adding that police failed to recover the missing children despite repeated court orders. The bench ordered the department to step up its efforts and recover the children in any way. Earlier, DIG crime branch informed the court that police was working on the case and got information about the whereabouts of a missing girl Asima, which is said to be in Balochistan. The DIG said that the police department’s anti-human trafficking cell is working for recovery of the missing children.

The court ordered NADRA officials to provide complete record of the missing children to the FIA. The bench also ordered police department to submit progress report on the case on 31st January.

In an earlier hearing, the bench had expressed its concern over rampant incidents of disappearance of children and questioned performance of the law enforcement agencies.

“Children are being reported missing but you people are resting in peace,” Justice K.K. Agha had remarked. The court expressed its displeasure over absence of the FIA officials and summoned the Director FIA in the next hearing. The judges ordered that the FIA and Police should work jointly and take steps for recovery of the children reported missing suggested using modern technology to trace the children. A petition was filed by the Roshni Research and Development Welfare in 2012 seeking court orders for the provincial police to consider the missing children’s cases, who went missing from different parts of Karachi, a cognizable offence, and register FIRs in that regard. The petition claimed that cases of missing kids were not properly investigated by the police department.

Published in Daily Times, January 18^th 2019.