Adulteration: Spurious juice, bottled water units raided

One arrested; four children, forced into labour, recovered.

BAHAWALPUR:

A spurious juice and bottled water factory was sealed on Thursday by the CIA police.

A man was arrested in the raid. Four children, who said they had been forced to work there, were released and handed over to their parents.

Inspector Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti said the Manzil Water factory near Saddar Pul was raided by a CIA police team on Thursday night. The team was made up of Inspector Muhammad Anwar, Sub Inspector Muhammad Shabir, Muhammad Safdar Bhatti and Deputy District Health Officer Umar Farooq.

Inspector Nawaz said that thousands of bottles of spurious juice and water were seized.

He said thousands of empty bottles and stickers were also seized.

He said a man, later identified as Muhammad Asif, a worker at the factory, was arrested.

He said police also discovered four children in a room, who said they had been forced into labour. He said the children belonged to Ahmadpur East. They were later handed over to their families.

He said the finished and unfinished products that were seized were worth hundreds of thousands of rupees.

He said the owner of the factory, Malik Wattoo, was missing.

The factory had been marketing juices and water for two years. He said the factory had also been providing juices and water to the Bahawalpur Zoo and the Chanan Pir Festival.

He said the police were looking for Wattoo.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2013.