Number of missing persons increases in 8 months

LAHORE: The number of missing persons increased during last eight months. On a daily basis, an average three persons are added to the list of missing persons, reveals data of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIED), available with The News.

According to the official data on missing persons, 741 cases of missing persons were received by the CIED from January to August by the current year. The data shows 80 cases of missing persons were added to the list of missing persons in January 2018. In February, 116 cases of missing persons were added. As many as 125 cases of missing persons were added in March. The commission received 162 cases of missing persons in April. In May, 86 cases of missing persons were added to the list made by the CIED. Only 36 cases of missing person were added to the list in June. As many as 77 cases of missing persons in July and 59 cases of missing persons were added to the list in August.

Since the inception of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, 5290 cases of enforced disappearances/missing persons have been received. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) stood first in reporting of missing persons cases. Since the inception of the commission, 2019 cases of missing persons were reported from KP. Sindh stood second in reporting of missing persons cases and 1367 cases of missing persons were reported from Sindh.

Punjab stood on third position in reporting of cases of missing persons. From Punjab, 1099 cases of missing persons were reported to the commission. From Balochistan, 356 cases of missing persons were added to the list of missing persons. From FATA, 229 cases of missing persons were added to the list of the commission. As many as 217 cases of missing persons were reported from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). From AJK, 229 cases of missing persons and six cases of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) were added to the list. Many persons were traced and recovered by the commission while there are many who are yet to be recovered.

From KP, 1017 missing persons are yet to be recovered and 304 in Punjab, 167 in Sindh, 131 in Balochistan, 114 in FATA, 66 in ICT, 26 in AJK and 5 in GB.