Nine-year-old rescued from ‘forced labour’

Child said he was kidnapped by a police official after his father's death.

FAISALABAD: The Child Protection Bureau on Thursday night recovered a nine-year-old child allegedly detained illegally by a police official. The child told the bureau officials that he was kidnapped by a Makwana police official, Zameer, after his father’s death. He said first the official made him work at his farm. He said later Zameer got him employed at a hotel near the Lorry Adda (bus stand). The child said that Zameer visited the hotel during the first week of every month to draw his salary from the owner.

CPB district officer Umar Daraz said that when his team conducted the raid and were taking the child with them a man identifying himself as his brother tried to take him away. “We refused to hand him over before he could prove his identity,” Daraz said. He added that when the man realised that they were not ready to surrender the boy he fled from the scene. When asked about the incident, Lorry Adda checkpost in charge, Siddique Cheema, said he had no knowledge of the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2011.