Special campaign: Himachal Pradesh Police traces 140 missing persons

Special teams were constituted for the campaign. Twenty women -- the highest -- were traced in Solan district followed by 18 in Sirmaur and 16 in Baddi, according to a statement issued by officials.

Shimla: As many as 140 missing persons, including 118 women and 22 children, were traced by the Himachal Pradesh Police during a special campaign in October, police said on Thursday.

Special teams were constituted for the campaign. Twenty women -- the highest -- were traced in Solan district followed by 18 in Sirmaur and 16 in Baddi, according to a statement issued here.

The highest number of children -- five -- were found in Hamirpur district, followed by four in Kinnaur and three in Mandi, it said.

Police said that, according to an analysis, the reasons that led to missing person cases among adults included social media interactions, distress in personal life and family environment, married women unable to adjust with in-laws, deficit relationship (husband-wife and larger joint families), neglected childhood, economic reasons and love affairs. 

In cases related to children, it was found that fascination to visit new places shown in social media posts and attraction towards online friends, broken family relations, drug addiction, study stress and failure in examinations, and tense family environment were among the reasons they leaving their homes.

Children and teenagers are tech-savvy and very active on social networking sites and screening of social media profiles came handy to trace them, police said in the statement.

Similarly, in another campaign to nab proclaimed offenders, 32 people were arrested in October. Out of them, 22 are from the state and 10 from outside Himachal Pradesh, police said. Five were arrested in Kinnaur and four each in Mandi, Sirmaur, Hamirpur and Bilaspur districts.