Date:23/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/23/stories/2006082320890400.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Number of missing persons on the rise

Special Correspondent

Seven go missing everyday, says Owaisi

HYDERABAD : MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi has expressed serious concern at the rising number of missing persons in the twin cities and pointed out that everyday seven such cases were reported here.

Raising the issue during question hour in the Assembly on Tuesday, Mr. Owaisi said the number of persons missing was increasing rapidly and faulted the Government for not making efforts to trace them.

Home Minister K. Jana Reddy said 1,351 `missing' cases were reported from the twin cities this year as against 2,216 last year. Out of the 1,351 cases, 884 were traced.

Government statistics

Mr. Owaisi countered the Government statistics and noted that figures compiled by him showed that 3,168 persons were missing in 2004 and 3,476 in 2005. He said on an average more than 190 persons went missing every month which works out to seven per day.

A more disturbing fact was that a majority of the missing were children, particularly girls. He said trafficking of girls and women to other States had witnessed an increase and the number of kidnapping cases had gone up as 1,118 cases were reported last year.

He questioned the Minister whether the Government had received any communication with regard to missing persons. Mr. Jana Reddy said the Centre had recently written to the Government asking for a status report on trafficking of women for commercial sex. Special teams were constituted to track down the gangs luring gullible women into prostitution, he said.