3 years later, 41 kids still untraceable in Karnal

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, August 17

As many as 41 children who went missing in the past three year in the district are still untraceable.

A police official did not rule out the possibility of human trafficking and said that the police were keeping a vigil on such anti-social elements.

As per the police record, 41 children, including nine girls, are still untraceable in the district. There is no clue about 15 children who went missing in 2015, eight in 2016, 12 in 2017 and nine in 2018.

However, the police have traced 212 children in the past two years under operation Muskan and operation Smile. The police launched operation Muskan in July 2017 and traced 71 children and traced nine children under operation Smile-II in October 2017. The police traced 40 children in March 2018 and 92 in April this year.

Neha (15), a resident of Shiv Colony, went missing on July 17. She went to fetch milk from the market, but did not return. Her mother Roma, father Sompal, brother Manish and uncle Mandeep Singh are making all-out efforts to trace her, but to no avail. “We cannot explain our distress,” said Mandeep Singh.

Kashmir Lather, uncle of Robin Lather, a resident of Dingarmajra, said Robin went missing on Independence Day. He went to tuition on a cycle, but did not return. They found the cycle abandoned in grain market. His mother Nirmla Devi and father Jagdish Chand Lather said that their son was sober and had no enmity with anyone.

Five children from MDD Bal Bhawan, an orphanage, are still untraceable. Sumant, a resident of Delhi, came to the orphanage on June 15, 2017. He went missing on July 3, 2017. Sunny, another orphan, who was brought here on May 11, 2016, went missing the next day. Vipin, was brought the Bal Bhawan on July 9, 2016, but disappeared under mysterious circumstances the same day.

There is also no clue about Hari Om since November 17, 2016. He was admitted to the Bal Bhawan on August 8, 2014. Vikas, who was taken to the orphanage on December 27, 2017, went missing on January 5 this year.

Surinder Singh Bhoria, SP, said that the police had traced 212 missing children under operations Muskan and Smile. He said that efforts were being made to trace the other missing children.