LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday ordered polygraph tests, also known as a lie-detector test, of children recovered in kidnapping cases to verify the veracity of claims that they had in fact been kidnapped.

The decision came after police briefed Sharif on a report about child abduction in Punjab, where residents are campaigning against the recent surge in child disappearances in the province.

According to the report presented to the chief minister, 94 per cent of the 767 missing children have been recovered this year, most of whom, police claim, left their homes over domestic disputes and were not abducted.

However, residents of the Punjab capital say the city has recently witnessed a surge in incidents of disappearance and kidnapping of children.

Waris Ali, a 50-year-old balloon seller in Lahore, told DawnNews that his nine-year-old daughter was kidnapped from the Badami Bagh locality a year ago.

Umair, a grade two student, was abducted on the third day of Eid-ul-Fitr when he left his house to buy sweets. Police found his body, with torture marks on it, two weeks later. An autopsy report revealed he had been strangled to death.

Residents of Lahore's Badami Bagh lamented police's inefficiency and accused officials of taking bribes from the families of victims.

But Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Captain Amin, while talking to DawnNews, said:

"Police is performing its duties to eradicate fear from children. Soon the murderers of Umair will be unveiled."

He said almost all missing children from Lahore had been recovered. "Out of 205, 192 children have been returned back to their families or recovered by police," the CCPO said.

"During initial investigations it surfaced that most of the kids, aged between 10 to 15, leave their homes due to their parents' attitudes," the Lahore police chief said.

Meanwhile, the provincial government is considering introducing a digital 'Child Abduction Alert System' for collection and dissemination of data on missing children so that relevant authorities can take timely and appropriate action.

The system, which is being devised by the Chief Minister’s Special Monitoring Unit (law and order) and the Counter-Terrorism Wing, would be implemented through the establishment of Child Safety Information Unit at the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB).