Matiari: Police raids brick kiln, recovers 23 detainees

MATIARI: Hala Police conducted a raid at a brick kiln here and recovered 23 people languishing in an alleged private jail in Matiari district of Sindh, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The alleged private jail was constructed over a brick kiln in the area where the suspects had reportedly detained 23 labourers including women and children.

Police conducted raid on the private jail after the Additional Sessions Judge issued orders over a petition regarding the place, where innocent people were forcefully being detained, officials said.

The police, however, didn’t disclose if any person responsible for the illegal private jail was arrested, neither it identified the culprits.

The private jail was constructed in Matiari district and it is yet to be known whether the people kept at the detention place were bonded-labourers or free citizens.

However, reports about bonded-labourers camps frequently surface in media in the past.

Bonded labour has been outlawed in Pakistan and most other affected countries in line with the UN conventions on human rights.

It is a type of forced labour and according to media reports, more than four million people, including women and children, work in almost 20,000 brick kilns across Pakistan to pay off family loans taken from the business owners.