Escape from the hard life

12 children plan to run from Edhi Centre, only three succeed.

KARACHI: The warden at the Edhi Centre in Korangi thought that the children were asleep but little did she know that 12 of them were conspiring to escape.

Soon after the clock struck 12 on Wednesday night, the children left their rooms to break a two-way main door. When the door refused to budge, they made a hole in the net and were wriggling through when the warden woke up.

By that time only five children had managed to escape but since two of them, Asif and Babar, were quite young, they were caught. The remaining three boys successfully managed to cross the barbed wire boundary.

Mohsin and Ibrahim, two of those who escaped, hid in a street in Korangi No. 4, where a resident Amir Zaki took them in. He gave them shelter for the night but not before he called the Express News office at 2 am. He told the reporters that these boys were in his house and need their help to contact their parents.

Mohsin narrated that he ran away from his house in Bahawalpur and took a bus to Karachi. As soon as he reached the city, the police caught him and sent him to the Edhi Centre.

Ibrahim said that he used to work at a workshop making handbags. One day, the owner of the workshop gave him Rs1,500 to buy beads from the market. He was on his way to the market with the cash, when the police stopped him and demanded where he stole the money from. Ibrahim tried to explain but to no avail. The policemen took the money and sent him to the Edhi Centre in Sohrab Goth.

Two weeks ago, he was brought to the shelter in Korangi, where he said the children were not treated well. They were beaten up and forced to do chores, the boys said.

Ibrahim’s family, who lives in Machhar Colony, has been contacted and they are expected to come pick him up today. Mohsin and Ibrahim will stay at Zaki’s house until their parents come. Meanwhile, the third boy to escape, Rehan, has yet to be located.

When contacted, Edhi officials insisted that these children are orphans with no one to look after them. They are, however, “criminal minded” and were being kept in the shelter so that they can be educated otherwise, an official said.

With additional writing by Hira Siddiqui

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2010.