SHEIKHUPURA, June 30: Bhekhi police claimed on Sunday to have detected a forced labour camp set up at a mills on the Faisalabad Road, some 25km from here.

The police said they detected the camp when 18-year-old Aslam reached police station and narrated the story. Aslam told police that he came from Dera Ghazi Khan some months back to earn his livelihood when two persons Iftikhar and Zulfiqar took him to the mills. He said some 16 to 18 boys of different ages were busy doing different chores and he was assigned one.

The police quoted the boy as saying no body was allowed to come out of the factory. At night, Aslam said all the boys had been locked in a big hall where two guards were deployed.

Any body failing to carry out the orders had to suffer torture, Aslam told police. The police said Aslam reached the police station on Saturday morning after escaping during working hours.

The police claimed to have raided the mills on Saturday evening and found 16 boys detained by Iftikhar and Zulfiqar. They claimed the two persons fled.

When contacted, a factory employee told this correspondent that Iftikhar and Zulfiqar were factory’s contractors and their duties were to provide labourers. The factory administration was not responsible for any wrongdoing by them, he added.

The police said they were conducting raids to arrest the two absconders.