KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday directed the police to continue efforts for the recovery of 12 missing children.

While deposing of a petition filed in 2012 about missing children, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto directed the police to keep on tracing the remaining missing children and submit in court the information in case of recovery or clue about them.

The bench observed that the petition was filed about the disappearance of 36 children from Karachi and apart from 12, all the children had been returned homes, recovered or their whereabouts were identified.

The lawyer for the petitioner submitted that the petition might be disposed of after an SP assured the bench that efforts would be going on to find remaining missing children and as soon as any child recovered or clue was found, due information would be submitted to the court as well as to the parents.

“Accordingly this petition is disposed of in above terms. However, police shall continue to make efforts for recovery of remaining 12 missing children,” the bench in its order said.

On a directive of the SHC, the police had registered FIRs in 2017-18 regarding missing children at different police stations of the city. Most of the missing children had returned their homes while the police had claimed last year that a missing boy, Ayaz, had died after falling in a drain in 2018 and missing girl Asma had not been kidnapped, but had left her home and married a man of Bengali origin and disappeared on her own.

The petition was filed in 2012 by a non-governmental organisation seeking court directives to the provincial police for considering cases of missing children, who went missing in different parts of Karachi, and registering FIRs in this regard as well as proper investigation.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2022