GWADAR: Police raided a house here on Thursday and recovered six Yemeni nationals held hostage by human traffickers.

District Police Officer of Gwadar Pervez Umrani told reporters that the raid was conducted after receiving information that Haji Luqman and some other people, who are wanted by police in cases of murder and other crimes, were hiding in a house located in Niaabad on the outskirts of the port city. But the accused escaped before the police reached there, he added.

The DPO said that during the search of the house police found six Yemeni nationals in a room. Their hands were tied with iron chains.

He said the Yemenis were in poor health and torture marks on their bodies were visible. They had been brought to Gwadar by human traffickers three years ago.

The Yemenis informed the police that they had been made hostage after they failed to make payment to human traffickers for their transfer to some foreign countries.

The DPO said the Yemini nationals had twice tried to escape but they were caught and identified them as Khalid Abdo, Khubad Saleh, Abdo, Yahya, Ahmed and Abdul Salam. They would be handed over to Federal Investigation Agency, he added.

He said drugs and weapons were seized from the house.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2015

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