Police seek parents, teachers’ help to combat child abuse

Seminar on October 16 will highlight role of society and police in child protection

LAHORE: Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Captain (retd) Arif Nawaz Khan has said the department would launch an awareness campaign on child abuse with the help of parents, teachers and people from different segments of the society.

He expressed these views while addressing officers at the Central Police Office on Thursday. In the session, reports and progress on cases of ransom, kidnapping and abuse were discussed.

The purpose of the drive is to engage all the segments of society to help eliminate child abuse.

Arif Nawaz Khan said that a seminar would be held on October 16 on the theme of “role of society and police in child protection” to spread awareness on child abuse and ways to prevent it. Leading figures from the education, judicial and literary sectors would participate in the seminar.

He directed all the RPOs and DPOs to undertake seminars and workshops in their respective districts to protect children and crimes against them.

“Police officers should personally visit schools to spread awareness among children about emergencies and deliver a lecture to save themselves from the criminals,” he said. This will enable children to respond in a better way in case of any untoward situation.”

He said special units of police should be formed to stop child abuse whereas close coordination with the Child Protection Bureau, district administration and other government institutions should be kept strengthened.

The IGP said it was the top priority of police force to bring down the occurrence of child abuse cases and ensure protection. “Therefore, all field officers should take steps as per the devised standing orders.”

He further said the patrolling timing of Dolphin, PERU and other patrolling forces should be enhanced and made effective in the surroundings of schools and colleges of all districts. The IGP added that monitoring of CCTV cameras around educational institutions should be ensured, especially in the districts of Sialkot, Mianwali with others where a modern surveillance command centre was working.

Additional IG R&D Captain (retd) Zafar Iqbal, Additional IG Operations Inaam Ghani, DIG Investigation Lahore Dr Inaam Waheed, AIG Logistics Athar Ismail, AIG Admin Hassan Raza Khan, AIG Finance Dr Shehzad Asif and other officers were also present in the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2019.