Bonded labour case: Court frees 20 people

Petitioner states 19 of his relatives had been missing for three days.

SUKKUR: A district and sessions court ordered the Hingorja police on Monday to present in court 20 people from the Oad community on December 9.

On Saturday, Sheral Oad, a resident of Shikarpur, had filed a petition with the district and sessions judge Khairpur, Ghulam Qadir Leghari, stating that 19 of his relatives had been missing for three days and he was afraid that a man named Dadlo Oad was planning to take them to Nawabshah where they would be made to work at a brick kiln as bonded labour. The district and sessions judge ordered the police to bring the missing people as well as the accused before the court.

Following this, SHO Hingorja Sibghatullah Jatoi cordoned off the highway and stopped a truck on its way to Nawabshah from Shikarpur. He found the 19 missing members of the Oad community locked in the truck. Jatoi freed the people, impounded the truck and arrested Sheral Oad.

On Monday, Jatoi said that as the judge was not in court, the community members and the accused had been presented before the second additional sessions judge, Khairpur. However, the judge postponed the hearing of the case till December 9.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2010.