Hyderabad: Cops free 56 children

Hyderabad: Forced to work for 17 hours a day in a stinking environment and confined illegally in bangle manufacturing units located on the outskirts of the city, 54 children from Bihar, who were trafficked to Hyderabad, were freed from child labour by Rachakonda police.

Police arrested seven persons including four from Bihar and three from the city on charges of trafficking of children, while four accused are yet to be nabbed.

The children, all hailing from Bihar, belong to poor families. The accused, who run bangle manufacturing units in the city with the help of agents, trafficked the children by paying meagre amounts to their parents and detained them illegally.

Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said that six persons – Mohammed Aslam, 50, Mohammed Ahsan, 22, Shaik Hab-eeb, 66, and Mohammed Musleem, 36, of Bihar and Shaik Mohammed Riyaz, 30, Mohammed Asgar, 18, and Moha-mmed Naseem Akram, 22, of Balapur were arrested near the Fala-knuma station.

“The children are forced to work from 6 am to 11 pm in a day. They are provided stinking food and do not have basic amenities and were all put in a room,” he said.