More than 50 children and men were found shackled in the basement of a seminary off Super Highway on Monday night. According to Malir SSP Rao Anwar, police raided Jamia Masjid Zakriya Kondali and recovered people whose ages ranged between 15 and 40.
The senior superintendent of police said they were drug addicts and the seminary's administration was running a detoxification unit. A signboard at the seminary said that drug addicts were treated there.
Police said the inmates had been brought there by their families for treatment of addiction. However, keeping them in fetters was highly objectionable and illegal, said the SSP. Read the full article here .– Text by S. Raza Hasan/Dawn, photos by AFP.
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Comments (24) Closed
Tamilselvan
Dec 13, 2011 04:21pm
Sad and moving pictures. Everyone involved had only good in their hearts but the approach may not have been correct. The parents want their children to come out addiction and they turn to seminary for help. In India there is a Dargah in Tamil Nadu where people bring their mentally handicapped relatives for cure and several years back about 90 died due to fire and most of them were chained and perished. Society needs to understand their plight and help. Rescue was good but what next?
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Himanshu Mumbai
Dec 13, 2011 04:58pm
I see children as old as 5 or 6. But the news says 15. Shame! How can someone treat children this way. Children are natures most fragile creation like snowflake, that have to be handled in delicate way.
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younis
Dec 13, 2011 05:49pm
t think,media is exagerating to make this issue more hot.inmates were being treated in conventional way.
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Paresh
Dec 13, 2011 06:30pm
Funny that Pakistan should be talking about human rights violation in other countries.
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Imtiaz
Dec 13, 2011 09:45pm
And what is that conventional way. Please elaborate.
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Michael
Dec 13, 2011 09:49pm
Well. Said, kids are very fargile and they should be well cared.
Michael
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ahmed
Dec 13, 2011 09:58pm
o ALLAH, please have mercy on the poorest of poor of the world.
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mustafa husain
Dec 14, 2011 03:24am
The SP says that they were inmated people to help them out of drug addiction. The picture of 7-8 years toddlers refute it. Did anyone edit this section and if yes, to fool whom?
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Pakistani
Dec 14, 2011 08:00am
Hats off to the person who provided the tip to the police.
Very sad to see the future of Pakistan in chains. I feel concerned about these kids/people as they have an uncertain future,. God knows whats going to happen to them, whether they'll be able to assimilate with general public and lifestyle. Can only pray I guess...
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Cyber Don
Dec 14, 2011 08:27am
Will you like your 5 or 7 year old son/brother being chained like this in the basement...show some humanity....
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Gibran
Dec 14, 2011 08:41am
I think you are right. This news is exaggerated just for more publicity.
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Pranav Saini
Dec 14, 2011 10:32am
Really ???? Would you send your child in this seminary ?
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Anurag Somani
Dec 14, 2011 11:03am
@Younis:
We'll see when your own children are treated in this "conventional" way. What a shame!
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Tejasvinee
Dec 14, 2011 12:25pm
Why is there no mention of 5 - 7 year olds getting trained to fight war in Afghanistan? The ones who're being beaten up ruthlessly. As per reports in all other major newspapers.
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Shabaz
Dec 14, 2011 12:34pm
It is not the inmates but the captors of them are drug addicts. By accepting and spreading the captors words, police also with these culprits. Now who can save these poor young creatures?
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goodwill
Dec 14, 2011 12:41pm
Younis, forget about world and what others say. Just ask your heart if what's done is right or wrong. Do you see drug addict in that picture? 6 yrs old drug addict?
One can fool the world but not oneself.
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Saurav
Dec 14, 2011 12:53pm
so you think those childrens were drug addicts too. pathetic inference
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Shafiq Khan
Dec 14, 2011 03:13pm
There is no excuse for imprisoning these unfortunate helpless people. The police statement should be about breaking the law of the land and not the explanation the captors offer.
Only and only the medically qualified have the right to treat drug addiction not the mullah quacks. What do they know about detoxification ?
It is without any doubt lethal in many cases to tackle detoxification without competent detoxification medical training. Any one without the medical qualifications as well as pertinent training and experience on top of the medical training is playing with fire.
Unbelievable ignorance and culpability displayed by the Mullahs . It is like open heart surgery by the local mullah to remove a blood clot.
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Sanjay
Dec 14, 2011 06:56pm
I see humanity being chained... to be exploited later. No exaggeration required to be potrayed .Ashamed if this were to be called a seminary. Indian friends .. we too have this in our country
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Sanjay
Dec 14, 2011 06:59pm
also sad is the biased attitude we show depending on the country where this typ eof incident occurs.
We need to see a child crying ... not a muslim/hindu crying and base our judgements.
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Khizr
Dec 14, 2011 07:49pm
Press must follow through on the future for each of these children and men. Thank God they are rescued from seminary, now let's not let them be abused by the police.
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salma gul
Dec 15, 2011 12:12am
Even if they were drug addicts it is no reason to have them chained and locked up and that too in a masjid. what a shame.
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Amit C
Dec 15, 2011 07:31am
I don't think these kids are 15 years old. Why pakistani police is trying to cover up the real intention.
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Ahmad
Dec 15, 2011 10:53am
This was a rehab center ?. The police and health ministry should have known this. What is the real story, may be the police did not get their share of profit.
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