MANSEHRA: A young girl, who lost her father in October 8, 2005 earthquake and was abandoned by her mother subsequently, was arrested from a brothel house in Hassa area of Balakot on Saturday night.

“We have arrested a man and his wife, who were running a brothel house, and a sex worker, who was abandoned by her mother after 2005 earthquake,” said Syed Mutloob Shah, the station house officer of Balakot.

He said that the girl, who had lost her father in the devastating earthquake some nine years ago, was left at the brothel house by her mother after contracting a second marriage with a man from Karachi. Mr Shah said that the girl was hardly of 10-year-old when she was abandoned by her mother. Since then she was being used as a sex worker, he added.

“We have also recovered obscene films, computers and CD player from the house,” the official said. He said that the arrested women also revealed the names of frequent visitors to the house. “The names are being kept secret at this stage of investigation,” he added. Balakot police registered a case under sections 365 D, 371 A and 292/293/34 against the arrested people.

The residents of Hassa have demanded of the district administration to expel the arrested people from the district otherwise they would be compelled to take law into their hands.

The residents of the area, led by by Fazlur Rehman, Mohammad Khalid, Anwar Khan and Atif Khan, told journalists that district administration should expel the arrested people from district. They also lauded police for raiding the brother house and arresting the couple. They said that local people were ready to bear all expenses incurred over their shifting.

“We cannot allow such people to stay in our locality. If district administration doesn’t take legal action to stop them from living here, we would expel them from their house but will not allow anybody to destroy the lives of our children,” they said.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2014