By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: SSP Islamabad Syed Mustafa Tanveer has said that the cops were trying their best to take the street kids off the roads. He believed that the begging children are victims of the ‘begging mafia’ in the city. He visited different locations of the city to supervise the campaign the police has launched against professional beggars. Additional SP Islamabad Farhat Abbas Kazmi, SP City Muhammad Umar Khan and other police officials also accompanied the SSP as he visited katchi abadis of the city. The operation has been launched on the directions of IS Islamabad police Qazi Jamil-ur-Rehman. The police said that the police teams raided different camps of the professional beggars especially in the katchi abadis after intelligence input from Additional SP Islamabad. The police teams arrested the handlers of the professional beggars and drug dealers.
Speaking at the occasion, SSP Operations Syed Mustafa Tanveer said that begging has turned out to be a profession and to check this practice, the police have started a campaign. He said the majority of the baggers are children and women. He said that the police department has also contacted the Child Protection Institute under the ministry of human rights and sought their help in ending the menace. He said the arrested begging children are later handed over to the Child Protection Institute. He said the police wanted these children to go to school and become a respectable member of the society.
He also appealed to the residents not to give alms to these professional beggars and look for really needy people in this regard. He said that the police have so far arrested at least 30 persons who were allegedly handling the professional baggers.
