May 18, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 12, 1429

RAWALPINDI, May 17: A bailiff appointed by district and sessions judge (DSJ) here on Saturday recovered 26 bonded labourers from a brick kiln in Taxila and handed them over to the complainant, and the judge asked both the parties to appear in court on May 20.

The bailiff Malik Lal Khan raided the brick kiln in Wahdat Colony in Taxila along with area police and recovered 26 people that included children, women and men. According to bailiff report there was a two-year-old baby among the bonded labours.

The Attaullah Kosar appointed the bailiff after Sultan Saeed moved the court seeking the recovery of what he said his 26 relatives who have been detained by the administration of the kiln for the last two months.

He alleged in his application that the administration of the kiln had not been paying their wages and forcing them to do work without any money. He also said that the detained persons were asked to pay Rs150,000 if they want freedom.

The court asked the complainant and the contractors of the kiln Yousaf and Ghulam Nabi to appear before the court on May 20 for further proceedings.

Meanwhile, Special Judicial Magistrate Ahmed Masood Janjua ordered the auction of 18 ton wheat flour that was captured by police near Chakri Interchange on Motorway on May 11.

The auction will be carried out on May 20 at Police post Chakri where the flour is dumped. According to police, the commodity was being taken to Butt Kheila in NWFP. The flour was loaded from a mill in Gujrat.

The driver and the conductor of the truck were arrested and are in the jail on judicial remand while a food inspector of the Punjab government, who was also allegedly involved in the smuggling, was yet to be arrested.