6 months on,no efforts to trace 35 Doaba youth

Six months on,no efforts have been made to trace the boys who have been missing for 5 years.

When contacted,Additional Director General Punjab Police (ADGP) and member NRI Commission Punjab V K Bhawra,who is monitoring the case,said the police have been collecting various details regarding the case and have accordingly informed the high court.

Advocate and amicus curae in the case,Anil Malhotra,who had taken up the case in the high court,suggested that a state police team visit Mauritania where the youth were last seen and seek the help of the Indian embassy in the west African country.

“At least there must be some conclusive end to this episode,” Malhotra said.

Sources said the Punjab Police had even sought Interpol help but to no avail. Around 37 youth from four Doaba districts including Jalandhar,Hoshiarpur,Kapurthala and Nawanshahr had gone missing in 2004 under mysterious circumstances while on their way to Spain illegally.

A Spain based journalist Harpal Singh,however,recently claimed that the youth were being held captive by a travel agent in Mauritania as Punjab- based agents had failed to make payments for an earlier instance of dropping Punjabi boys to Spain. Singh said a Saharanpur youth had informed him of their plight.

The state police have registered a case on charges of kidnapping and under various provisions of Immigration Act on the complaint of the youths’ families. A travel agent,Manjit Singh,has been arrested and is in jail.