KASUR: The fear of child kidnapping has panicked the people of Kasur. They have begun reacting violently after reports of a spate of child kidnappings in Lahore.

On Friday, villagers tortured two vendors in Kharaipar, in the jurisdiction of Ganda Singh police, suspecting them as child lifters.

They handed them over to Ganda Singh police, who released them after interrogation.

Similarly, the residents of Mandi Usmanwala seized and tortured a mentally-challenged woman after someone raised an alarm that she was kidnapping a child. Police, after a thorough investigation, released her.

On Thursday, police arrested a man outside a marriage hall in Kot Radha Kishan when some wedding guests captured him, calling him a child lifter. Police released the man after preliminarily inquiry.

Saddar police received a call from one Nazia Bibi that some car riders had tried to snatch her two-year-old daughter near Lakhnaykay village on Ferozepur Road. On her resistance, the riders hit her and fled without the baby.

Rescue 1122 shifted Nazia to the Kasur District Headquarters Hospital.

Police also responded to a call and rushed to Hemaykay village in Phoolnagar that the bodies of seven missing children were found in the fields. The call later proved to be a hoax.

The city remained in the grip of rumours that a seven-year-old girl had been kidnapped by some car riders, while the residents of Falcon Colony in Pattoki informed police that a stranger had tried to kidnap a boy when he was playing with his mates.

People are using the crime as a weapon to implicate their rivals.

One Ghulam Husain reported to police that Ashiq had kidnapped and sold children. Later, it emerged that Ghulam Husain and Ashiq had an enmity with each other.

People have demanded that the police have certain mechanism to suppress rumours.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2016