–Shahdara police fails to trace woman and her teenage sister who were kidnapped two months ago
LAHORE: Despite the public’s protests against the recent increase in crimes in the provincial capital and nearby cities, including Kasur, where children were abducted, raped and murdered, the police have failed miserably performing their fundamental duty.
On Monday, five-year-old Muhammad Yahya was kidnapped from the Liaqatabad area of Lahore as he went to a nearby shop to buy some food. After waiting for hours for him to return, the boy’s family looked everywhere, including the local mosque where he studied, but he was nowhere to be found.
The child’s family said that when it occurred to them that their son might have been kidnapped, they went to the Liaqatabad police station to lodge a formal complaint against their son’s “abduction”. However, the police, instead of taking action on the complaint, demanded money from the worried parents.
“We have searched every corner of our vicinity and have been running from pillar to post but in vain and the police is not helping us either,” Muhammad Makki, the father of the missing child.
Azhar Mehmood, the child’s uncle, told this scribe that the police asked them to bring tea and cigarettes while they patiently waited instead of taking any action. “When we pressed them to act quickly, they asked us for money,” he added.
This particular case is among many cases of violence against children and the state’s failure to protect them from harm. Last month, multiple bodies of children were found in the suburbs of Kasur, who had been subjected to sexual abuse before murder. After much hue and cry from the public, the police finally arrested a man named Sohail Shehzad after his DNA matched with the samples taken from the bodies of the children, and presented him before the court, which granted them the suspect’s physical remand.
While more cases of abductions continue to surface, police and other law enforcement agencies have also failed in retrieving those who had been abducted months ago.
A woman, along with her teenage sister, was abducted by unknown persons from the Shahdara area of Lahore but the police is still clueless about their whereabouts. Although one of the suspects in the case was taken into custody, the Lahore High Court (LHC) soon granted him bail.
Shehnaz Bibi, ther mother of the kidnapped women, told this scribe that despite her constant appeals, the police had failed to properly assist her in finding her abducted daughters.
“My daughters have been kidnapped and my husband is helpless and too poor to do anything about it. My home gives a deserted look. I cannot sleep. I cannot do anything,” the teary-eyed woman said, crying for security and justice.
She also said that she suspects the involvement of her daughter-in-law in the case because she had “strong connections” with some people.
After hearing the version of the victims’ families, Pakistan Today contacted Liaqatabad and Shahdara Town police stations. A similar response was received from both police stations as they said that they had been trying to trace the culprits and hoped they would be arrested soon.
Regardless of visible inaction, the investigators of both police stations remained optimistic about finding the victims.