Parents of missing children call off protest after police assurance

PATIALA: Two days on, the police is yet to get any clue about the missing minor boys who were allegedly kidnapped from Khedi Gandhiyan village of the district. The parents however, had lifted up their protest from Patiala-Chandigarh road on Wednesday night. The police had now called the NDRF teams for help who conducted a search operation in a village pond.
The parents along with the villagers had staged a protest and blocked the Patiala-Chandigarh highway from Tuesday evening to Wednesday night as police failed to trace out missing children. Two minor boys identified as Jashandeep, 10 and Hasandeep, 7, were allegedly kidnapped on Monday night from the village after they had gone to a local shop to buy a soft drink but were kidnapped by some unknown person who took them away in a car.
The parents of the missing children lodged a complaint with the police on Monday night and staged a protest on Patiala-Chandigarh road on Tuesday morning, however, they lifted protest on assurance of the police. Later, again on Tuesday evening the family along with the villagers protested at the same spot and had blocked the road near Rajpura since then. The police had diverted the traffic through villages while the passengers ferrying to Chandigarh were being taken via Sirhind road instead of Rajpura road. Over 150 cops were deployed to manage the traffic on the blocked road.
The parents lifted the protest after the police assured them to trace their children within 48 hours. Patiala senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu is leading the investigation. "We have conducted out a search at numerous places but all in vain. The NDRF team was called to carry out a search in a village pond. We are investigating the case with the IGP Patiala."
Didar Singh, father of the missing children said, "We don't know why the police was searching the village pond when the children were taken away in a car. We are not satisfied with the police investigation."
Notably, the police have already filed a complaint on the National Tracking System for Missing and Vulnerable Children- a tracking agency has also issued a national alert under which all the station house officers in the country have been requested to inform about the missing children.
To crack the case, police have also formed eight teams including SP (city) and SP (investigation), six deputy superintendent of police (DSPs), and in-charge, Crime Investigation Agency Patiala.
The divers near the Bhakhra canal have already been given instructions to keep a regular watch over the visitors.