123 missing children rescued in Uttarakhand by state police under Operation Smile

DEHRADUN: A total of 123 missing children were rescued from different parts of Uttarakhand by the state police in a fortnight as part of its ongoing drive named Operation Smile, launched to trace missing children.

Out of these, 103 children have been reunited with their families.

The remaining 20 of them have been admitted to children's home for rehabilitation and efforts are on to locate their families, a release from the state police headquarters here said today.

Operation Smile was launched last year to trace missing children and was resumed on July 1 this year.

Giving a district wise break-up of the rescued children, it said a maximum of 34 children were recovered from Haridwar followed by Dehradun (17), Chamoli (15), Champavat (11) , Tehri (7), Bageshwar (7), Udhamsingh Nagar (7), Nainital (6), Uttarkashi (5), Pithoragarh (4), Almora (4), Pauri (4) and Rudraprayag (4).