LAHORE/MUZAFFARABAD: In a major breakthrough against child trafficking, a joint team of the Anti-Kidnap for Ransom Unit (AKRU) of the Lahore Organised Crime Unit (OCU) and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K) police have recovered 29 kidnapped children from Kotli district of AJK.

Aged between 14 and 20, most children were kidnapped from the surroundings of Hazrat Ali Usman Hajvari (RA) Data Ganj Bakhsh shrine Lahore and each child was reportedly sexually abused multiple times.

The raid was carried out by a joint team of the Lahore OCU and AJK police at two rented houses in Kotli city of AJK where the kidnapped children were kept under tight vigilance of the armed men.

Three suspects of child trafficking gang arrested

To make the raid successful, Lahore police high-ups had talked to AJ&K Inspector General of Police Rana Abdul Jabbar with a request to ensure secrecy and depute a team of professional officers for the recovery of the children. Lahore OCU DIG Imran Kishwar told Dawn a suspect arrested by the OCU police had leaked information about the child trafficking network being run by a gang of kidnappers for the last several years.

The suspect had told police that the gang had abducted hundreds of homeless children from outside the shrine of Hazrat Ali Hajveri (RA). The child traffickers lured these children under the false promises of lucrative employment and later transported them to AJK.

“The heart-wrenching reality revealed that these innocent victims were subjected to egregious human rights violations, including illegal confinement and forced labour in the catering industry,” the DIG said.

Disturbingly, he said, the victim children endured profound abuse, including sexual exploitation.

The AKRU of the Lahore OCU arrested key players of the gang including one Imran known by the alias ‘Kanpata’.

He said Kanpata used to trace and target the children offering them wages of Rs2000 per day besides free food and accommodation.

As the abandoned or homeless child agreed to the lucrative package, Imran handed him over to other members of the gang namely Nasir and his son Ali, belonging to Narowal district.

These two suspects then would take children by public transport to rented houses in AJK’s Kotli city, the DIG said.

Mr Kishwar said that the kidnappers’ gang used to earn Rs75000-Rs100,000 per day through the bonded labour.

SSP Kotli Adeel Ahmed Langrial told Dawn that a police team from Lahore had taken 29 kidnapped children and three accused into custody from two areas of his district on Friday.

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“They sought our assistance in tracking down an alleged trafficker, Nasir, after receiving complaints from victims who had escaped from his custody,” said SSP Langrial.

In Sehnsa, the police team from Lahore raided the Kashmir Wattan Marriage Hall and found 15 children employed by Nasir for catering work, the SSP said.

He said eight more children were rescued from Nasir’s rented accommodation in Kotli city, from where Nasir’s son, Ali Raza, and his clerk, Ali Nawaz, were also apprehended.

Additionally, six children were removed from a public bus arriving from Lahore.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2024