LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif on Monday ordered setting up of a task force on missing children in the backdrop of recent incidents of child kidnappings.

He gave the orders while presiding over a meeting which reviewed overall law and order situation in the province, progress in the cases of missing children and performance of the Child Protection andWelfare Bureau (CPWB).

The chief minister said he should be given regular updates regarding the performance of the task force after it would become functional.

He said a strict surveillance of areas with a high rate of missing children should be ensured and the best police officers and staff should be posted there.

He said additional police should be deputed at bus stands, railway stations, parks and others places of rush to avert child kidnappings and ordered effective implementation of the strategy evolved for curbing such incidents.

The CM said the bureau and police would have to work moreefficiently for recovering missing children and reuniting them with their families.

The meeting was briefed that 767 children were missing or kidnapped during current year so far, out of them 721 had been recovered and were reunited with their families.

It was further told eight suspects, including their ringleader, operating a private torture cell had been nabbed, while raids were on for apprehending their neeing accomplices.

CM`s Special Assistant Rana Maqboold Ahmed, CPB Chairperson MPA Saba Sadiq, chief secretary, IG, home secre-tary, law secretary, Lahore commissioner and senior police of ficers attended the meeting.

REUNITED: A team of CPWB on Monday reunited another runaway child with his parents in Pattoki.

According to a spol
He was found by police and was shifted to the Open Reception Centre of the CPWB, set up at Lahore railway station.

The centre staff sent him to the CPWB head office and launched search for his parents. On coming to know about an FIR filed by theboy`s parents, the CPWB contacted them and handed Ahad over to his family.

The spokesman said the bureau had handed over 3,420 runaway and street children to their parents during the first seven months of 2016.

The Lahore office sent 686 children, Faisalabad 481, Gujranwala 727, Multan 445, Rawalpindi 602, Sialkot 338 and Bahawalpur office sent 141 children back to their homes during the period.

The department still holds 147 children at its offices in different cities, and efforts are being made to reunite them with their parents.-APP