RAWALPINDI: Four children belonging to Lahore, who were allegedly sold by a woman 10 months ago and had since then been working as domestic servants in the garrison city, were reunited with their grandfather here on Thursday.

However, a local court forgave the woman as well as those who had paid her for the children.

The children belonged to a poor family of Lahore and were allegedly sold by Zubaida for Rs140,000 to Mohammad Faisal and Farooq Ahmed who own a business in the Narankari Bazaar of Rawalpindi. The woman claimed to be the mother of the children and said she was unable to bear their expenses.

The children were brought to Rawalpindi by Mr Faisal who later handed one of them over to his brother-in-law Salim with whom he was working as a domestic servant. Another child was sent to the house of a man identified as Asim.

The Banni police launched a search for the children - seven-year-old Manno, Rani, 13, Qasim, 10, and six-year-old Ali Raza - after their grandfather, Manzoor Ahmed, approached the additional district and sessions judge of Rawalpindi.

On the directions of the court, Sub-Inspector Aftab Ahmed Malik was assigned the task to recover the children.

The police traced three of the children (except Ali Raza) on Wednesday and produced them along with Mr Faisal before the court of the ADSJ.

The judge ordered the police to shift the children to the shelter home and called their grandfather for taking over their custody.

The court also ordered Mr Faisal to produce the fourth child, Ali Raza, within 24 hours otherwise an FIR would be registered against him.

The police said Mr Faisal also produced the child in the court on Thursday.

After verifying the ‘B’ forms of the children and the national identity cards of their parents, the court ordered their handing over to Manzoor Ahmed and his daughter-in-law.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2019