11,000 MISSING

GUWAHATI, September 6: Dead or alive? Assam Police does not have any answer to this query regarding the whereabouts of over 11,000 people, who had been missing since 1998 till date. Worse, the men in Khaki have put their hands down in most of the missing cases reported during the period living the family members of the victims in the lurch. Of the 17,721 persons who have gone missing since 1998 till date, only about 6,000 could be traced living the police department high and dry with a success rate of just around 35 percent. What is even more significant is the fact that the number of missing children during the period is almost identical to that of adults. From the year 2007 to till 2009 (up to march), While 2,485 Adults were reported missing from various parts of the State, stood at 1,734. In the current year itself, over 500 hundred cases of missing (both adults and minor) have been reported till date. The period between 1999- 2006, however, registered more cases of missing children than that of adults. “This figure, as it stands now, is expected to rise in more rapidly, if a cohesive road map is not planned by the State Government in association with the law enforcing agencies of the other States of the country,” Opined senior Assam Police official while talking to the Assam Tribune. “Of course there are some hurdles in tracing missing human beings but if the problem is getting as alarming as this, a definite plan has to be there,” the official stated, ruling that the State Government has hardly shown any concern to this problem. “A proper study of the nature of the cases has to be done to chalk out any kind of plan to arrest the existing trend and that would be possibly only after the police department strikes a healthy and sustained relationship with its counterparts across the country,” he stated. “Security agencies, it may be mentioned, have about the years attributed the rising number of missing cases to the rampant trade of human trafficking and human organs trade though no deterrent action has been seen to tackle the problem,” a senior citizen stated.