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May 21, 2006
Pakistan: Islamist Group Trades Christian Children As Slaves
We reported on May 2 that the Pakistan Islamist group Jamat-ud-Dawah and its affiliate group Isara Khidmat-e-Khalq were designated by the US as "terrorist groups". Pakistan then was refusing to ban the groups' activities, even though there is substantial evidence that they act as fronts for the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayba or Lashkar-e-Toiba. This group is responsible for, amongst other attacks, the bombings at Delhi on October 29, which killed 59 people.
Today, the Sunday Times has news which should lead to the Jamat-ud Dawah being banned. Gul Khan (pictured) is a wealthy Islamist from this group, who is frequently found at the JUD base at Muridke near Lahore. He has been found to be running a trade in kidnapping Christian boys aged 6 to 12 years old, and selling them for up to 1,000 pounds ($1,800), as slaves. The boys are condemned to live a life of domestic servitude.
The boys are taken from near their homes in the Punjab by force, apparently with the aid of chloroform.
Gul Khan was exposed by a combined force of American and Pakistani missionaries, who filmed him accepting a fee of $28,500 from a missionary, who posed as a businessman. The undercover missionary said he was wanting to set up a business, where he would have boys begging for cash on the streets. Khan took the money, on the promise that he would hand over 20 boys for the purported operation.
He returned to the JUD headquarters, and while he checked that the dollars were genuine, he took the missionary's assistant hostage. Finally twenty boys were handed over to the undercover missionary. They were thin and unkempt. They had been kept prisoner in a room, where they had received frequent beatings.
The missionaries were demanding the prosecution of Gul Khan and an investigation into the activities of the JUD. Hafez Muhamed Sayeed, the leader of JUD, was accused of inciting riots during the Danish "cartoon crisis".
JUD had been formed in the late 1990s by Osama bin Laden. Khan lives near the border with Afghanistan, but stays at the JUD headquarters at Mudrike when he is in the Punjab.
The Sunday Times has moving accounts of how six boys were returned to their families, and details of how the "sting" was carried out. But descriptions of ow the children were kept in captivity is harrowing. The boys were forbidden to pray, talk or play, and were subjected to frequent beatings.
One boy, Akash, said: "I drank from a glass of water and one of the kidnappers pushed me so hard I fell on the glass and it broke in my hands." His fingers are still scarred. He was thereafter made to drink from a tin cup. Read the FULL ACCOUNT.
UPDATE: The Sunday Times print edition featured moving photos of the children being reunited with their families. With thanks to our reader sscott for pointing it out, a site called Help Pakistan Children also has these photographs of children being reunited, and more. A video shows the undercover filming of Gul Khan receiving his sack of money, and the drive to Jamat-ud-Dawah headquarters. A moving slideshow depicts the shock and joy of reunions.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 21, 2006 4:09 AM
Comments
Here's the link were you can see the hidden video taken during the transaction of puchasing the children. You can also see photos of the children being reunited with their parents.
http://www.helppakistanchildren.org/video/video.htm
Posted by: sscott ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.westernresistance.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 22, 2006 7:58 PM
Thank you very much sscott -
Such input is always appreciated. I try to be omnipresent on the web, but being a mere mortal, I often miss juicy pieces, or do not have time to write up on articles. I will check the video now, and will incorporate it into the text, and give you a mention.
It is good to know our readers help us out.
Best wishes
Giraldus Cambrensis
Posted by: Giraldus Cambrensis at May 22, 2006 8:14 PM
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