KARACHI: A court on Tuesday released eight teenage boys held for allegedly selling offal of sacrificial animals in an Orangi Town area.

The Orangi Town police booked and arrested the eight suspects, including Kamran, Laraib, Moiz, Muhammad Sohail, Naseeb, Safdar, Hussain for their alleged involvement in selling offal of sacrificial animals on the Main Qadhafi Town Road, hindering vehicular movement on the busy artery during heavy rains.

On Tuesday, the investigating officer produced the suspects before Judicial Magistrate (West) Sheraz M Shaikh to seek their physical remand in police custody for interrogation.

Defence counsel Liaquat Ali Gabol submitted that his clients were in fact helping the citizens stranded in rainwater accumulated on roads, but the police falsely claimed they were selling offal, etc, and took them into custody on refusal to pay them a bribe.

The counsel argued that all of them, aged between 16 and 18 years, were residents of a same area and they were voluntarily regulating traffic in the worst post-rain condition.

The magistrate, who was performing special duty during Eid holidays, discharged all the suspects from the case and ordered their immediate release if their custody was not required in any other case.

A case was registered against them under Section 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Orangi Town police station.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2022