Why is the government quiet?
If the mystery of child abductions across Punjab, especially Lahore, is really nonsense – as some in government and most in the police have been saying – they why doesn’t the government put an end to it once and for all? And if there is truth to it – as is becoming increasingly evident with time – why has the government not uttered a single serious word about the matter despite hundreds, if not more than a thousand, abductions? Clearly the government is far more concerned about its own political survival. And as pressure stemming from the Panama Leaks mounts – and the opposition begins agitating – missing children of not so important people are not very high on the agenda, it seems.
Increasingly, news and social media is filled with stories of more child kidnappings. Sometimes there is word of a mafia operating, running gangs of criminals. Some say vans suddenly arrive, people jump out, grab little children, and speed away. Other, far more disturbing accounts, tell of organ trade and dead children. Yet none of this has bothered the government enough to offer a formal statement acknowledging or denying such reports. People in Lahore, especially, are now terrified. Some are also calling for delaying opening the schools till this matter is settled first. Everybody is upset; just not the government.
People, naturally, have taken to vigilantism. Social media tells of people being caught red handed and roughed up by the people; the police nowhere to be seen. In one incident, caught on film, the law did not arrive for two hours after an attempted kidnapping was foiled. While two of the three alleged culprits got away, people beat the one that was caught within an inch of his life. The police did slightly better in KP, arresting a seven-member gang, five of which were females, some in the health department. These are chilling facts. Yet even more frightening is that they do not bother the government at all.