KARACHI, Aug 21: Scrap dealers, locally known as ‘Kabaris’ have been exploiting street children by encouraging them to steal whatever they could, especially from industrial areas of the city. Such children are found returning to scrape dealers with metal articles and other things for sale after stealing the same from industrial units and households.

Some workers of factories in Site Area have come out with claim that it had become a daily routine that street children are found in possession of stolen items.

Amid a remarkable increase in such theft cases these days, some people monitored their activities and movement and caught several street children red-handed. During interrogation, the children confessed that they had been doing this job for a scrap dealer located within the Site area. According to the workers, the scrap dealer patronises a gang of about 25-30 street children who stay at night at his place of business.

These children are also given drugs to ensure their continued association with his illegal business. Another group of grown-up street children has been assigned to steal heavy articles, the workers claimed.

According to them, the local police are also fully aware of the scrap dealer’s illegal activities but they do not take action against him or the children for obvious reasons.

One of the workers said that residents of the area, where the scrap shop is located, were also worried about their children who might fall into the trap of the scrap dealers who might lure them to the ‘lucrative’ business.—PPI