Minister accused of human trafficking |
Khaleej Times (21 September 2005) ISLAMABAD — Pakistani nationals who recently returned from Sudan after being freed from a private prison alleged that a minister in Azad Kashmir government had trafficked them to Khartoum for slave labour and demanded his immediate arrest. The 21 emancipated slave-labourers said Minister for Industries Haji Mohammad Yaqub, who owned a recruiting company in Pakistan, sent them to Sudan in March on tourist visas with promises that they would get residency and jobs in an oil company there. “He charged hefty amounts against our visas and sold us to an Indian agent, Ravi Ravinder, in Bageer near the Sudanese capital,” returnee Abbas Ishaq told reporters in Karachi claiming that they have ‘concrete’ evidence against the minister. For six months they were kept in a private jail and forced to labour for no pay and were watched over by armed guards. An official of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, Mehnaz Anwar, said that most of the returnees are weak, as they were not given proper food during their detention, only boiled rice and dirty water. ”Whenever they protested their captors stopped their meals,” said Anwar. Pakistan’s embassy in Khartoum also refused to help them when they eventually were able to get in contact. With the help of the UNHCHR, she said, the trust had released a total of 58 Pakistanis from the cell in Khartoum, but 37 could not be brought back home due to various complications, including lack of finances. The trust also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Shuakat Aziz and President General Pervez Musharraf. Press Back on your browser to Return
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