Gone for months: PHC orders police to recover kidnapped boy

No FIR registered for incident that occurred almost ten months ago

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court has ordered the police to recover a missing eight-year-old child and present him in court on May 26, the next date of hearing. The boy was abducted in July last year and the police are yet to register a case.

The order was issued to Faqirabad SHO by the division bench of Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani as it heard a petition filed by Amjad Iqbal, the father of the missing child, Shehzad.

On May 19, the court had summoned police officials, directing them to appear before the court on Thursday and explain their reasons for failing to register an FIR. The family said Shehzad was kidnapped by seven people on July 23, 2014 while on his way to a seminary in Zaryab Colony.



During the course of the hearing, Arshad Hussain Yousafzai, the counsel of the petitioner, told the bench the police station refused to register a case when it was approached on the same day of the abduction. Yousafzai further said the family suspected seven specific people for the kidnapping, but the police was yet to take any action. The kidnappers have demanded Rs40 million as ransom for the safe release of Shehzad.

“The family then filed an application under Section 22-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the registration of an FIR, but that was rejected on various grounds,” the counsel stated.

Assistant Advocate General Syed Sikandar Shah raised some points, stating that the family was approached a month later for a daily diary registration as filing the formal FIR had been delayed.

Meanwhile, police officials present in court assured the bench that they would register the FIR and start raiding various places where they suspected the child was being held.  The PHC then ordered them to recover the child before the next date of hearing on May 26 and produce him in court.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2015.