CREATIVE: MOHSIN ALAM
A police official told Express News that a court bailiff, accompanied by the police, raided the accused landlords’ camp and recovered a married couple along with their seven children who had been in illegal confinement for over a year.
He added landlords of Chak No 7, Muhammad Liaquat and Ashiq Hussain had illegally detained Muhammad Aslam along with his wife Mumtaz Mai and seven children identified as Shehzad, Shan, Irfan, Abdul Rehman, Shaban, Sidra Bibi and Saira Bibi at their camp.
The official maintained the landlords forced the victims into bonded labour.
Peasant family released from illegal detention
However, one of Aslam’s relatives submitted a request to Justice of Peace Wasim Anjum and on his orders the bailiff raided the place along with the police and recovered the family. When Aslam was produced before the court he said, “The son of the landlord and his nephew, Abdullah used to physically assault my son. When I tried to take action, I was detained along with my family,” he lamented.
The court released all the persons and ordered action against the suspects.
Earlier, police recovered a labourer, his wife and their child from illegal confinement by a landlord in Faisalabad. The landlord was arrested and the family provided medical treatment.
Police said they learnt that the three had been chained a week ago. A few months ago, Nawaz Ahmad had taken a loan from Riaz Ahmad, a landlord in Chak 414-GB. Nawaz sought more time from Riaz after he failed to return the money on time.
Riaz then told Nawaz to work at his dera round-the-clock. However, when Nawaz refused, Riaz ordered his men to bring him to the dera, where he chained him.
A few days later, when his wife came looking for him along with their child, the accused landlord also detained them.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 14th, 2018.
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