Save the Children from Kidnappers in Pakistan

17 August 2016

By Saeed Qureshi

Many Pakistanis would recall that during the era of President Pervez Musharraf a beastly person killed 100 children of various ages by suffocating them with mask of cyanide gas. He even celebrated the ghastly tally of 100 children. For police and the people, it remained an unresolved mystery as to who was the killer of such a huge number of children until that fiendish individual himself walked into the office of Daily Jung and identified himself as the murderer of the children.

Even after his confession and arrest the concerned authorities never bothered to probe as to why he killed 100 children and what were his motives. A killer of the level of that monstrosity would not commit such a heinous crime for the sake of it or for being a psychopath. One of the motives could have been that he might be working for the people dealing in the sale of kidneys and other body parts. Presumably after the kidneys were removed by his heinous collaborators, he would wash down the bodies of the victims in the sinkhole by diluting those in the concentrated acid.

It is so heart-wrenching and indeed mysterious that the neighbors and surrounding inhabitants never got the wind of what this devil along with a young accomplice or many collaborators was perpetrating his loathsome savagery. It is also mind boggling that the police never came to know about such a fiendish orgy of blood-letting in a house in the heart of Lahore city. The law enforcement and intelligence authorities must have been alarmed over the disappearance of children in such a large number. He was perhaps a lone murderer in the world who brutally murdered so many children and remained undetected.

One may, in the hindsight, imagine the gory fact is that our secret service agencies had failed to nab that devil and fid his network even after the happening of that mass murders some two decades ago. He could not have been entirely involved in that spine chilling death game all by himself and for the sake of satisfying his beastly urge. Even now when the layers are peeled off about those most harrowing happenings, the authorities might find clues of his collaborators including the buyers of the body parts of the slain children.

After his confession he was arrested and was lodged in a jail for the case to be pursed in a court of law. Keeping in view the faulty and dilatory nature of Pakistan's justice system it would have taken many years before final verdict would have been handed out. Who knows he could have received only jail term of a few years for being a mentally unstable person. After his confession that savage man should have been intensely probed to reveal his contacts. Thereafter, he should have been placed before a firing squad.

I have broached this long curtain-raiser and detailed prelude to highlight the renewed spree of kidnappings of the young and teen age boys and girls from various cities and villages of Pakistan. The reports about kidnappings are daily appearing in the press and aired on the electronic channels.

It appears that the child abductors and kidnappers are once again on the rampage. It could also be the diabolic crime of the later day Jihadists who need manpower to keep their religious crusades going on. It could be surmised that the male children might be kidnapped by the people for extracting body parts like the kidneys to be sold to the clinics. The kidnapped girls could be pushed into the prostitution dens.

The evil and heartless elements in every village, town and city of Pakistan prey upon the tender age boys and girls on their way to school, playing somewhere in the streets or in open places, from the hospitals or those going to a neighborhood shop or even for prayers in mosque. The most vulnerable are those kids who come to the cities aimlessly from the rural areas because of the domestic violence or to find a job.

We have seen on the electronic media, the wailing and anguish stricken faces of mothers and other family members whose children were abducted and who couldn't be traced. Such families remain in perpetual agony and in stark shock that cannot be described in words.

It is stated in a report released by the Punjab police that during 2011 to 2016, 6,793 children were abducted out of which 6,654 had been recovered. But recovery of the abducted children is of secondary importance. The fundamental issue and challenge is to smash and destroy the monstrous networks of the abductors and their cohorts and award them swift punishments.

So far during the current year, in Punjab province alone 767 children were abducted out of which 715 were recovered. From among the high profile kidnappings Ali Gillani the son of former Pakistan prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani was recently recovered from Afghanistan in a joint operation carried out by the US and Afghan forces, Ali Gillani was kidnapped by Taliban militants in Multan on May 9, 2013.

Barrister Awais Shah the son of Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was abducted on June 20 from outside a superstore in Karachi. He has been recovered in an intelligence operation, on July 18. The five years old son of the Senior Civil Judge Rawalakot Yousuf Haroon, is still missing for five years now.

It is therefore indispensable that the intelligence agencies and police force should work jointly to hotly pursue and nab the abductors and kidnappers of the children. It is a dark blot on the face of Pakistan that must be washed off by stringent and urgent measures. Those children who have been recovered can provide vital information about the way they were abducted, where they were lodged and how they were treated. Such victimized children must be having some essential information to enable the law enforcement authorities to catch the perpetrators of this diabolic, tormenting and heinous crime.

The writer is a senior journalist, former editor of Diplomatic Times and a former diplomat. This and other articles by the writer can also be read at his blog www.uprightopinion.com. 

©  EsinIslam.Com

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