ISLAMABAD: Police arrested a couple, over the weekend, for child trafficking and unknowingly busted a gang buying and selling babies under the guise of social work.

The couple confessed to police that they had sold at least 12 babies in the last few months. They had bought babies from a woman running an NGO in Peshawar.

A police officer, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that a television reporter Asif Qureshi spotted a suspicious Facebook page ‘Adopt a Baby Islamabad’ and showed it to a senior police officer. The reporter said he had been told on the phone that a baby girl could be provided to him for Rs310,000.

Sub-Divisional Police Officer Arsila Saleem and Ramna police SHO raided the associated address in G-10/4 where they found a baby girl with the couple.

A police official told Dawn that the couple had been running an NGO and bought babies for Rs100,000 to Rs170,000 each from the woman in Peshawar. They would then report each baby to the police as an abandoned child found in a crib placed outside their home, where they ran the NGO.

“They gave legal cover to the business by registering the sale of a baby as adoption in the court of a magistrate,” said a police officer. He said a profit of up to Rs300,000 was made on each baby.

The baby girl found at the house was prematurely born and is now recovering at a hospital, police said.

Published in Dawn February 3rd , 2015

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