When begging becomes business

Minors, differently-abled persons reportedly being sold to mafia

THEKRI WALA:

Minors and differently-abled persons were allegedly being sold to the begging rings in the city, a police report revealed.

Reportedly, the minors were ‘hired on rent’ or sold for begging in different areas and highways of Faisalabad.

In Ghulam Muhammadabad area, a man allegedly sold his one-and-a-half month -ld daughter to a begging group for money.

Ghulam Muhammadabad police raided the area and arrested the man. Police also recovered a differently-abled woman and a girl who was abducted and registered cases.

Police said Rubina Iqbal Cheema, an officer of the Child Protection Welfare Bureau (CPWB), had taken a stand in the case registered at Ghulam Muhammadabad police station that in Latif Chowk, Sarwari Bibi, the wife of Muhammad Botha, was arrested for begging along with a minor girl and detained at Ghulam Muhammadabad police station.

Read Punjab ramps up efforts to save child beggars

Meanwhile, Sarwari Bibi, the wife of Muhammad Botha, confessed that she had bought the infant girl identified as Anaya from Misteri Mohammad Nqdeem, the son of Faqir Mohammad and a resident of Ghulam Mohammadabad, Street No 3, for Rs25,000.

She confessed that the accused Nadeem had sold his daughter through Akhtar, the son of Taj and a resident of Khalid Town and Noor, the son of Sohne Khan. “The baby was a month and a half old when I bought her.”

According to the police officials, Sarwari, the wife of Muhammad Botha. was a professional beggar who begged on highways in different parts of Faisalabad.

She used the minor Anaya to beg. Inaya's father Nadeem allegedly sold the girl to Sarwari, Noor and Akhtar. Police arrested the infant girl's father and the beggar Sarwari, registered a case against them and started searching for the remaining suspects.

The CPWB officer said, “We received a tip-off on which we caught Sarwari while she was begging. Sarwari confessed the infant girl was in her house on which Ghulam Muhammadabad SHO Roy Aftab Waseem along with the team of the child protection bureau raided the house, rescued the girl and registered a case.”

Faisalabad District police had registered about 600 cases so far during the campaign against beggars under the tenure of Punjab IGP Rao Sardar Ali Khan. Around 80 per cent of beggars across the country, including Faisalabad, are on the streets and major highways with the innocent minors who were often rented and forced to beg, spending much of their time on the highways.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2021.