LAHORE, March 10: The Lahore High Court on Thursday set at liberty a couple and their two minors after getting them rescued from three-year illegal detention of a local landlord in Depalpur.

A bailiff raided the outhouse of landlord Haji Shaukat and recovered Muhammad Mansha, Ghulam Fatima, their minors Zakia and Altaf and produced them before the court.

The victims told the court that the landlord illegally detained them for three years and they were subjected to forced labour. They alleged that the landlord and his men used to torture them.

A relative of the couple had filed the habeas corpus petition for their recovery. INTERIM BAIL:

A division bench of the LHC on Thursday suspended sentence of an advocate in a narcotics case and allowed him interim bail till March 18.

Advocate Ayaz Safdar was awarded eleven-month imprisonment and Rs30,000 fine by an anti-narcotics court on March 4. The lawyer was arrested at Allama Iqbal International airport, Lahore, when he tried to smuggle 420-gram heroin. The anti-narcotics force had registered a case. Later the accused-lawyer obtained bail, faced the trial and managed his escape from courtroom the day he was sentenced.

Thereafter, he moved the high court through Advocate Asghar Ali Gill, incumbent LHCBA president, against his sentence.

The bench headed by Justice Sheikh Najamul Hasan after hearing the counsel's arguments suspended the sentence and allowed interim bail to Ayaz Safdar subject to furnishing of bail bonds worth Rs200,000.

The bench also summoned case record from the trial court on next date.