ISLAMABAD: In a significant breakthrough against child trafficking, a joint operation by the Anti-Kidnap for Ransom Unit (AKRU) of the Lahore Organised Crime Unit (OCU) and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K) police has led to the rescue of 29 kidnapped children from Kotli district in AJK.
The children, aged between 14 and 20, were mostly abducted from areas around the Hazrat Ali Usman Hajveri (RA) Data Ganj Bakhsh shrine in Lahore. Tragically, reports indicate that each of the children had been sexually abused multiple times.
The rescue mission took place at two rented houses in Kotli city, where the children were being held under the tight watch of armed guards. The operation was carried out by the Lahore OCU and AJK police, leading to the arrest of three key suspects involved in the child trafficking ring.
In order to ensure the success of the raid, senior officers from Lahore coordinated with AJ&K Inspector General of Police Rana Abdul Jabbar, requesting a discreet team of skilled officers to assist in the recovery. Lahore OCU DIG Imran Kishwar revealed that the raid was based on a tip-off from a suspect already in custody, who had provided crucial information about a long-running child trafficking network.
The suspect disclosed that the gang had been abducting homeless children for years from the vicinity of the Data Ganj Bakhsh shrine, luring them with false promises of high-paying jobs. The children were then transported to AJK, where they were subjected to various forms of exploitation.
“The grim reality is that these innocent victims endured severe human rights abuses, including illegal confinement and forced labor in the catering industry,” said DIG Kishwar, noting that sexual abuse was also a part of the children’s suffering.
Among those arrested is a key figure in the trafficking ring, identified as Imran, known by the alias ‘Kanpata’. Imran’s role involved identifying and targeting vulnerable children by offering them daily wages of Rs2,000 along with free food and lodging. Once a child agreed to the offer, Imran would hand them over to other members of the gang, including Nasir and his son Ali, from Narowal district.
Nasir and Ali then transported the children to rented properties in Kotli, AJK. The gang reportedly earned Rs75,000 to Rs100,000 per day from the children’s forced labor.
SSP Kotli Adeel Ahmed Langrial confirmed that the Lahore police team, with assistance from local authorities, had rescued 29 children and apprehended three suspects from two locations in Kotli. The Lahore team had received leads after some of the victims escaped and reported their ordeal.
In a raid at the Kashmir Wattan Marriage Hall in Sehnsa, police found 15 children who had been forced into catering work by Nasir. Another eight children were rescued from Nasir’s rented accommodation in Kotli, where his son Ali Raza and an associate, Ali Nawaz, were also arrested.
The operation has highlighted the scale and severity of child trafficking in the region, prompting further investigations into the gang’s activities.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
