KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday observed that the performance of a team, headed by a DIG, for recovery of missing children was quite unsatisfactory and directed the provincial and city police chiefs to personally look into the matter.

When a petition about missing children came up for hearing before the two-judge SHC bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto on Thursday, police produced one of the missing children, Mohammad Hasnain, before the bench.

DIG Arif Hanif informed the bench that the child was recovered from the streets. However, when the judges asked certain questions to the child, he replied that he had been abducted from outside his house around two years ago and was staying in a room. The statement of the child was contradictory to the report of the DIG.

The bench asked the DIG whether he had interrogated the family members of the house where the child was residing; he replied in the negative. The bench observed that the DIG was mainly relying upon an SSP, one of the members of his team, adding that 18 children were still missing.

It further said that the performance of the team, headed by the DIG, was quite unsatisfactory and the DIG was directed to take the child along with his father to the place where he remained detained or under captivity and record statements of the persons of that family and also interrogate them.

The court further asked the DIG to also grill the persons of same locality so that he may be able to find some clue to the remaining missing children.

The bench also found the progress report, submitted by the DIG, unsatisfactory and expressed the hope that sincere efforts would be made by the DIG for tracing out the remaining 18 children missing since long.

While adjourning the matter till April 11, the bench also directed the provincial police officer and the Karachi police chief to look into the matter personally.

Earlier, on a directive of the SHC, the police had lodged 23 FIRs regarding missing children at Awami Colony, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, Ferozabad, Saudabad, Docks, Preedy, Boat Basin, Quaidabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, New Karachi Industrial Area and Korangi police stations. Later, five of them returned home.

The petition was filed by the Roshni Research and Development Welfare Organisation in 2012 seeking court directives to the provincial police for considering the missing children’s cases, who went missing from different parts of Karachi, a cognizable offence and registering FIRs in this regard.

The NGO alleged that cases of the missing children were not properly investigated by the police which resulted in many avoidable deaths.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2019