Noida police launches 'Operation Muskan-3' to trace missing kids

The Gautam Buddh Nagar Police on Thursday launched a month-long campaign called the 'Operation Muskan-3' to trace missing children and reunite them with their families.

These teams would visit 18 districts of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states to track the little ones.

Based on previous successful two such drives undertaken by the cops, they formed 21 teams to look for 132 missing children since 2007.

Also, a training session was organised on Thursday by Senior Superintendent of Gautam Buddh Nagar Police to brief the officers regarding the operation and the modus operandi of the mission.

Similar two operations were launched by the police in 2015 and 2016.

Preeti Bala Gupta, SP Crime told Millennium Post, "As many as 21 teams of policemen have been formed to locate the missing kids. These teams will initially cover 18 districts of UP and other states. Districts like Kanpur, Haridwar, Meerut and other nearby regions will be covered. A progress report will be taken from these teams after a week. A further phase of the investigation will be launched following a discussion".

Discussing the Modus operandi, SP said, "The teams will visit shelter homes, public places, footpaths, religious places and other suspected locations to look for clues of the children at these spots. A booklet consisting of the pictures and the details of each kid will be given to the teams. This will help them find the missing kids and will also enable them to quiz the child to recall their past and family. Pictures and details of the children will also be shared with the NGO Childline and other social work organizations."

"Once a kid is located by the police, he/she will be reunited with the parents only after fulfilling the guidelines set by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). The main aim of the programme is to prevent child trafficking and rescue children from persons who tried to engage them in begging, sexual trade and other anti-social activities" added Gupta.