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In Manipur, parents worried as more children go missing

IMPHAL: The rise in the number of children missing since May 1 in Manipur is causing fear among parents about sending their wards to school. On Tuesday, the police received complaints that five children were missing.

It is suspected that some militant organisations have abducted the children for recruitment.

In fact, some parents have received telephone calls within days.

Identifying themselves as members of an outlawed underground organisation, the callers told the parents that their children were with them. In most cases, there was no further contact.

Following impassioned appeals, four boys have been set free, two of them inmates of a home for destitute children. The whereabouts of the remaining boys and girls are not known.

In a statement, the militants, however, denied kidnappings or enticement with inducements, and claimed that the children had come on their own.

Y. Lunchenba, 12, escaped from a house where he was detained. He told journalists that while he was on his way to the house of a teacher for tuition in Imphal two armed youths accosted him and whisked him away.

Two girls N. Abeana and L. Jenebi are among the missing children.

The police have not made any breakthrough in the investigation. There is a sharp decline in attendance in schools. Panic-stricken parents themselves drop children at school and pick them up after classes are over.

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