Human smugglers active in Sadiqabad?

Residents have alleged gang active in the area, trafficking people to forced labour camps in Afghanistan.

SADIQABAD: Fauji Fertiliser Chowk residents have alleged that a gang active in the area was involved in trafficking people from all over southern Punjab to forced labour camps in Afghanistan.

Ghulam Sarwar, Muhammad Younis and Shaukat Ali, who have recently returned after escaping from one such labour camp in Kandahar, told The Express Tribune that they had been smuggled some seven months ago by a group allegedly led by Muhammad Sarwar, Muhammad Varyam, Abdul Rashid of the Bhatti clan.  They said they escaped the camp and reached the Chaman border, where they were arrested by Pakistani officials who after verification of their identity let them go.

The three along with the relatives of Manzoor Hussain, another Sadiaqabad resident who had been smuggled and was still confined at the camp, staged a protest against the police, on Tuesday, for not taking any action against the accused.

Sarwar said he had filed an application with the Saddar police for registration of criminal case against the accused but the police have yet to take any action.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Muhammad Anwar Kibran said that the police have received the application. He said that they would only make an arrest after they complete the initial inquiry.

He said that the Saddar police have appointed Sub Inspector Chaudary Muhammad Iqbal to investigate the case.

Kibran said that the case involved cross border movement so it fell under the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA). He said that he has directed the Saddar police station house officer to send a report to the FIA, adding, that the FIA would then be responsible for acting against the people who smuggled the group into Afghanistan.

During the protest, Ghulam Sarwar, said that a total of about 40 people were sent by the gang to Quetta. 12 of them belonged to Sadiqabad, they said.“Muhammad Sarwar and Varyam contacted me some seven months ago and told me that they were getting people jobs at brick kilns in Quetta,” Sarwar said, adding, that they assured him that he would get good salary, besides free food and medical facilities.

At Quetta, he said, they were packed into a large container and were told that they would now be taken to the brick kilns. Instead, he said, the container remained locked for about eight hours. He said that when the door opened and he stepped out they were in the middle of a mountainous region, which he later found out was in Kandahar. “The men at the camp told us that they bought us from the people in Quetta for Rs1.4 million,” he said.

Sarwar said that conditions in the labour camp were extremely poor. He said they were made to work the entire day and at night were locked up inside a small room. There were no healthcare facilities, he said, adding, that he along with Younis and Ali told the organisers that they were very ill and urgently needed medical attention after which they were taken to the city. “We deceived them there and fled. He said that they worked for some days in the city to collect enough money to pay for transport to the Chamman border.

He said that around 40 labourers were still detained in Kandahar and were being forced to work at the camps without any facilities.

These included Manzoor Hussain and his son Mushtaq Hussain. During the Tuesday’s protest, Noorah Bibi, Manzoor’s wife, said that on getting no information about her husband and son after six months of their departure, she contacted the accused and was initially told that they were fine. “When I approached them a second time they told me to go back and not return to them,” she said, adding, that they threatened her to keep quiet. She said that now that she knew that where they had sent her husband and son, she would make sure that they pay for their actions.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2010.