Punjab renews hunt for 400 missing kids

CHANDIGARH: About 300 to 400 children go missing in Punjab every year. And in the wake of the Muktsar killings, in which bodies of five children were recovered, the Punjab police have undertaken a special drive to launch a hunt for the missing ones.

According to an official report, more than 300 children were reported missing in the state in 2005. The situation deteriorated in 2006 as the number of missing children shot up to 490.

Though the police succeeded in tracing around 370 of them in the last two years, nearly 400 more are still missing.

“The district police have been directed to make renewed efforts to trace the missing children. Besides questioning criminals who are found to be involved in the incidents, efforts would be made to identify dubious elements, particularly the narco-addicts,” DGP SS Virk said. 

In Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala the number of missing children is unusually high. This could, perhaps, be attributed to a large number of migratory labour that throng these places, the DGP said. In Ludhiana city for instance, around 174 children went missing in the last two years.

“The district police chiefs would create profiles of the missing children to ascertain whether ransom demands had been the motive," the DGP said. However, if the number is found to be high among the poor families, the police would round up the target drug addicts.

The exercise would be completed within a week, he said. There has also been a steep rise in the number of missing children in Madhya Pradesh. The police said around 611 children went missing from 7 towns of the state in 2006 — 282 from Bhopal followed by Indore (129), Ujjain (108), Dhar (33), Khandwa (28), Mandsor (16) and Khargone (15).