All children must be treated as our own: DIG Operations

Officer says parents, teachers and police need to work together

LAHORE: Children are the future of our nation, therefore, there is a dire need to curb anti-social elements who commit crimes against children, said Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Amin Wains.

He was speaking as chief guest at a seminar ‘Protecting the Rights of Children' which was organised by the Lahore police at Aiwan-e-Iqbal on Tuesday.

The CCPO said that parents, teachers, police, civil society and other stakeholders need to work together to protect them from sexual violence and other heinous crimes.

A large number of children from different schools, members of civil society, journalists, an officer of Child Protection and Welfare Bureau, including its chairperson Saba Sadiq, Deputy Commissioner Sumair Ahmad, DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf, SSP Operations Muntazir Mehdi and many others attended the seminar.

"Parents should keep an eye on behaviour and activities of their children and whenever they notice any unusual changes, elders must inquire and when necessary, inform the police," he said.

DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf said "Keeping in view the increasing number of cases of violence against children, it is mandatory we treat every child as our own. Violence against him/her should be considered as if it was against our own child."

He claimed that protecting children was a priority of the Lahore Police. "We are taking every possible step to provide protection to them, but we need public cooperation too."

Sadiq said that their department was working to protect the rights of children in all the districts of Punjab.

Chairperson of Sahil, an NGO working for rights of children and child psychiatrist Sumera Bibi, said that children should be trained through education to react immediately to counter incidents of violence against them.

At the end of the seminar, different documentaries, feature short films and sketches to raise awareness among children against violence were also presented.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2018.