Farmers freed from landlords’ private jails in Sindh shared their ordeal and said they were detained in small rooms in chains and were tortured, and physically and sexually abused in captivity.
Earlier, a 50-year-old woman, Granaz, had accused Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) Provincial Minister Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran of detaining her and her children in his private jail. She was rescued last week along with her children. During the captivity, Granaz was tortured along with her family. She and her daughter were also sexually abused. The was also confirmed during a medical examination.
Granaz’s husband Khan Muhammad Marri has been accusing the minister of detaining, torturing and abusing his family for the last two years. However, the law enforcement officials took action amid protests by Marri tribesmen in Quetta and outcry on social media following the recovery of the dead bodies of Marri’s sons and an unidentified woman from a well in Barkhan Balochistan.
Granaz also said the family was subjected to torture and were kept in separate rooms. She also claimed they were not allowed to meet each other.
In a report by BBC Urdu, a number of farmers shared their plight and said they were subjected to torture in private jails and were forced to work from dawn till dusk.
One farmer named Lali Kolhi said that she was forced into bonded labour along with her family by a landlord in Umerkot. She said that her sister was also sexually abused by the landlord’s son.
The report said that some farmers can never get their freedom, instead, they have to run away. One such farmer is Mannu Bhail, who was a farmer on agricultural land in Sanghar. He said that there was no way for him to get justice so he ran away.
There are camps in Kothri, Umerkot, and Hyderabad for the farmers who have gotten free from the landlords’ private jails.
Farmers also said they were not allowed to leave the rooms they were detained in and they were not provided healthcare facilities in case they got sick.
