LAHORE, June 3: A five-year-old child has fallen a victim to the negligence of the Punjab Child Protection Welfare Bureau as three unidentified people took him away from the custody of its officials.

A CPWB source told Dawn that the child, yet to be identified, was wandering on the Walton Road when a Rescue 1122 team took him to its Qainchi Amar Sidhu office on May 29. The rescue officials called the bureau workers at their office and handed over the child to them, he added.

On their way back to the CPWB office, three people signalled the vehicle to stop on the Walton Road and raised hue and cry showing that the child belonged to them. As some passersby gathered there and the child claimants further created fuss, the CPWB team, comprising Child Protection Officer Muhammad Arif and the driver, could not sustain the pressure and handed over the child without any verification.

Later, they informed their superiors about the incident who got registered a case against unidentified people in Factory Area police station.

Mysterious is the fact that the bureau officials handed over the child to the people they didn’t verify about despite the fact that no child rescued by the bureau could be handed over to even parents/guardians unless he/she is produced in a court.

Those working in the bureau are well aware of the fact that the beggar/destitute (children) are usually being monitored by the mafia people who depute them at different places.

The source said the child belonged to Chhanga Manga and came to Qainchi Amar Sidhu along with his maternal aunt to stay at the latter’s house. His uncle and aunt visited the CPWB office on the Shalimar Road and inquired about their child. They held the bureau responsible for ‘abduction’ of their child.

A CPWB official, Nabeel Malik, told Dawn that the CPO and the driver had been suspended from service and an inquiry was under way.

Factory Area Supervisory Police Officer Tanveer Alam Odho, when contacted, said the police had launched efforts to trace the missing child.