KARACHI: The Sindh High Court took strong exception to the absence of a senior police officer and directed him to appear on Nov 24 and furnish details about the whereabouts of 12 missing children.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto expressed displeasure over the performance of the provincial task force (PTF) and joint investigation team (JIT) for missing persons and said that they discussed theses cases, but it appeared that only formalities had been completed.

It directed the PTF and JIT to hold their sessions again about missing children and file reports.

The bench also summoned the director of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Sindh, after it was informed the report of the FIA about missing children was still awaited.

When the bench took up a petition filed in 2012 about the children went missing from the provincial metropolis, DIG-CIA Nouman Siddiqui was found absent.

The bench said that on the last hearing it had directed the DIG to file a tangible report about the remaining children after he submitted that a missing girl had married to an illegal immigrant of her own will and went underground while a missing boy, Ayaz, had died after falling in a drain in 2018.

SSP Marof Usman appeared on behalf of the DIG and stated that the cases of missing children were taken up by the PTF and the JIT also discussed the case of every missing child separately.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2021