A day out with the family turned into a nightmare for 13 children and their kin as they got separated due to the heavy rush of people at India Gate on Sunday night.
However, thankfully the Delhi Police was able to trace all the missing children and reunite them with their frantic parents within a few hours.
It all began when families from all parts of Delhi converged on India Gate lawns to celebrate Eid. As the crowd got bigger and the parents became engrossed in the attractions on offer at Delhi’s favourite hangout, the children, mostly aged between 4 to12 years, wandered off and got separated from their families.
later, when the families realised that their little ones were missing the worried parents informed the police who launched a massive hunt for the lost kids. Incidentally, most of the missing children were from Muslim families. The New Delhi and South District police conducted a massive search operation and finally managed to recover the last child by 1 am and reunite them with their relieved families.
“All the children were safely rescued from New Delhi area. It was the heavy rush on Sunday which led to the incidents,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Vijay Singh.
According to a police officer involved in the search operation, due to the massive rush and traffic jams at India Gate and C-Hexagon on Sunday, police were already on duty to avert any untoward incident.
The first call about a seven-year-old girl going missing came at around 6 pm to the Police Control Room (PCR). By the time police could initiate the search operation other calls about children missing from India Gate lawns flooded the PCR and Tilak Marg Police Station. By 9.30 pm 13 children were reported missing from India Gate.
As the information reached the PCR, Delhi Police top brass alerted the entire New Delhi district and a massive hunt was launched for the children. Photographs of the missing children were also shared on Whatsapp messenger group on the mobile phones of policemen deployed at India Gate.
DCP Vijay Singh along with other senior officials took command of the search operation and finally they managed to trace the last child at 1 am from near Janpath-Rajpath crossing.
“With the help of local Intelligence and visitors who had come to India Gate all the children were found. Thankfully, none of the children had gone that far and that helped the police in tracing all of them. The operation was finally called off after the last child was found and handed over to his worried parents,” said the police officer.