FAISALABAD, July 15: The local police busted a gang of three outlaws involved in the trade of children here on Monday.

Police also recovered three children who were forced to beg under the garb of selling books, pamphlets, cassettes of na’ats and other material.

According to details gathered by this correspondent, police received a tip that an organized gang had been involved in forcing the “abducted” children to sell handbills, audio-cassettes and books of verses of the Holy Quran for the last several months. The children were also being forced to beg in case the people refused to purchase any article from them.

Peoples Colony ASP Shahzad Sultan constituted a special team which traced the gangsters and monitored their activities for three consecutive days. On early hours of Monday, the police raided a hotel in the General Bus Stand area and arrested all three outlaws. They were identified as Maqbool Ahmed son of Ilam Din, Ghulam Rasool son of Muhammad Sharif and Abdul Ghaffar son of Maqbool Ahmed. All the accused belong to the rural areas of Bahawalnagar.

On the pointation of the arrested accused, police also recovered three children — Naseem Akhtar, Muhammad Saleem and Maqsood Raza from a small room with having no ventilation. The children also hail from Bahawalnagar.

During the preliminary interrogation, the accused claimed they had brought the children with their parents’ consent and that they had contact with them. “Belonging to the poor segment of society, their parents could not make their both end meets,” they said.

The accused said contracts had been made with their parents in the presence of elders of the area for the payment of Rs1,500 salary in lieu of the “services” of children. The parents of each child were regularly being paid as per the “agreement,” they claimed. They, however, admitted that they kept their parents in the dark about the forced begging.

The accused also claimed that they were not involved in torturing the children, saying that they were being given food thrice a day.

Maqsood Raza (10) told Dawn that he had three sisters and two brothers and he was the second in number. He said his father was a rickshaw driver and the owner paid him only Rs30 per day. “Since my father cannot bear the expenses of the whole family he handed me over to these persons”, he clarified. Naseem Akhtar (11) said his father was a vegetable seller and earned Rs50 per day which was not enough for his family comprising his five sisters and two brothers.

Muhammad Saleem (9) said he had four brothers and two sisters. He said his father was a farm worker and could not feed the family for his meagre earning. Being an elder son, he had been given to the accused for looking up the family income, he said.

The children said that under the guidance of the accused, they were selling cassettes of na’ats, booklets of darood shareef and verses of Holy Quran. They were asked by their masters to beg money from people if they refused to purchase articles. They each were earning Rs200 to Rs300 every day and were being given Rs15 each daily in addition to food and salary.

Peoples Colony police have registered a case under sections 374, 418, and 420 PPC against the accused.

Police have also sought legal opinion from the Law Department of the police about the fate of the recovered children. Guidance has also been sought whether action could be taken against the parents, as according to evidence collected by them, they are also involved in the “crime”.