250 child labourers rescued; 15 persons held

Hyderabad: As many as 250 children, including 10 girls from Bihar, who were forced to work as child labourers in hazardous industries were on Saturday rescued from Old City here, police said. Fifteen persons, who worked as middlemen and pushed the minors into child labour, have been rounded up in this connection, they said.
The children were rescued during a massive cordon and search operation carried out by South Zone police in different areas of Old City. All the rescued minors were sent to rescue homes and efforts were being made to contact their parents, a senior police officer said.
“Keeping in view of an IB alert ahead of the Republic Day, we carried out searches to nab habitual criminals. We found these children, aged between 8-13 years kept in rooms of some rowdies. They were being exploited and forced to work in hazardous industries,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Zone) V Satyanarayana told PTI. Most of the children are from districts of Bihar, including Gaya and these children were brought to the city after giving an advance ranging between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 from Bihar, the DCP said. The operation is still underway.
To keep a check on anti-social elements and to induce a sense of security among people, Cyberabad and Hyderabad Police have been conducting massive search operations in different parts of the city for the past several months based on information that few pockets have turned out to be shelters for criminals like property offenders, snatchers and those indulging in other illegal activities.
Satyanarayana said, police have rounded up Yaseen Pehalwan and 14 others, who worked as middlemen and business owners, engaged in bringing the boys from Bihar and forcing them work in bangle manufacturing houses of Talab Katta localities. “All of them admitted that they had been bringing the boys from the different districts like Gaya, Jehanabad, Nalanda and Nawada in Bihar and forcing them work at bangles manufacturing units by paying minimum salaries to them,” he said. The search parties checked Pehalwan’s house and found a number of minor boys. (PTI)