ISLAMABAD, June 18: The interior ministry has received information that a gang involved in inter-city human trafficking is using children for beggary in different cities, a source in the ministry told Dawn on Sunday.

According to the source, the gang picks up children from remote areas after paying some money to their poor parents and takes them to different cities on the pretext of providing them jobs.

The scam was unearthed few days ago when a truck bringing about 60 children from Sargodha to Islamabad met an accident and over-turned near the federal capital.

Police reached the spot and found the children who, it was learnt, were being taken to twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad where they were to be deployed at various traffic signals for begging. But, unfortunately, no case was registered.

The interior ministry has been informed that people involved in the scam keep shifting these children from one city to another on monthly basis to avoid exposure of their scam.

However, the ministry believes that such illegal practices could only be carried on with the tacit help of police and other law enforcement agencies. According to the source it is in the knowledge of the ministry that the gang regularly pays heavy bribes to police on monthly basis.

He said after receiving the information, the ministry had asked the police in all the four provinces to take appropriate measures to curb the menace.

However, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which was assigned the task of checking international human smuggling after establishment of its Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) in collaboration with the United States, is reluctant to take any action against intra-country human trafficking, the source said.

The agency has told the interior ministry that curbing the menace within the country is a provincial subject and it is responsibility of provincial governments to check it in their respective territories.

Meanwhile, Punjab government has informed the interior ministry that it has established an Anti-Human Trafficking Cell and a number of cases have been registered against those involved in using children for beggary.