19 May 2004	Wednesday	28 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, May 18: A man, allegedly involved in smuggling of children for forced labour, has been arrested. Rajab Ali was arrested by the police, with the help of CPLC when a boy, Sajjad, escaped from his custody and approached a lady councillor, Samina.

The lady took the boy to the CPLC central chief, Murad Ali Soni, where Sajjad narrated his ordeal. According to the boy, he was kidnapped by Rajab Ali two months back from Alipur in Punjab, and later, with five other kidnapped children, was taken to a village in Badin.

Sajjad told the CPLC that they were first engaged as forced labour at a farm, and later confined to a factory in Federal B Industrial Area, till their escape. He said that he was the last one who managed to escape from the factory.

Mr Murad Soni told Dawn that the police and a team of the CPLC raided the factory and arrested Rajab from outside the premises of the factory. Rajab was not an employee of the factory. The suspect told the police that for the last many years, he used to kidnap children and supply to different factories and landlords for forced labour.

He is being grilled at a police station and would be handed over to the Punjab police on their arrival. The police said Rajab Ali confessed to have kidnapped hundreds of children between age of 10 to 14 during the past many years.

Sajjad's father Ghulam Qadir, who reached the city to take the custody of his son, said that he had gone to the police station concerned to lodge a report. The police had asked for Rs500. Ghulam Qadir said that he was a poor labourer and could not pay the money. The police did not register the case and he could do nothing.

After the arrest of Rajab Ali, the Sindh police contacted the Punjab police and informed about the development. The Punjab police directed the Alipur police to register an FIR and took Rajab Ali into custody for legal proceedings, officials said.

ACCIDENT: A pedestrian died in a road accident in Korangi on Tuesday. Police said that Mohammad Rafiq, 20, was crossing a road when a speeding water tanker (RIN-8634) knocked him to death. His body was shifted to the JPMC for legal formalities, police added.