KHAIRPUR, Feb 9: Police have foiled a bid to kidnapp a disabled child and busted a gang that shifted disabled children to Iran and other countries for begging. DPO Khairpur Khadim Hussain Rind told a pres conference here on Wednesday that the eight-member gang kidnapped disabled children and sent them to Iran and other Muslim countries via Balochistan to use them for begging.

He claimed that two members of the gang namely Mumtaz Ujjan and Badaruddin Buledi were trying to kidnap a disabled child, Sajjad Hussain Chaddar, when police arrested them here on Tuesday.He said that the arrested criminals disclosed the names of other gang members as Beegoo, Deedar, Sarang, Laik, Abdul Wahab and Khadim, all Jafri by caste, belonging to district Shikarpur and Kumb and Tando Masti towns of Khairpur district. He said that they were arrested from different areas.

According to police, the accused admitted that they made children beg outside mosques and shrines in Iran and other Muslim countries and a child earned about Rs50,000 per month.

An elderly woman, Lal Pari, present at the press conference said that her disabled nephew Reham Ali Gopang had also been kidnapped by the same gang two years ago.

The DPO said that a special team led by SPO of Pir Jo Goth Abdul Qadir carried out an operation against bandits and recovered three kidnapped people namely Rahmatullah, Riaz Hussain and Munawwar Kanhar after an encounter.

They had been kidnapped three to four months ago from the village of Ali Bux Kanhar, taluka Kingri.

He said that bandit Lashkari Teghani had been arrested in the encounter and police seized a Kalashnikov from him.