Desperate Pakistani man offers his children for sale

KARACHI, Feb 13 (Reuters) A Pakistani man today offered his three children for sale in a protest to highlight his desperate poverty, police said.

The man, an unemployed baker, sat on a street with with his three boys, aged 10 and under, in the central town of Mian Channu, beneath a banner reading: ''Children for sale'' before police detained him.

''He is mentally upset. He is very poor and said he wanted to draw the attention of the people to his plight,'' Malik Ejaz, a senior police official in the town, told Reuters.

''He cried a lot and promised not to repeat his shameful act. He has been released after getting some financial help,'' Ejaz said.

Pakistan's economy has been growing quite fast in recent years, but rising prices and serious unemployment mean poverty is a serious problem for millions of people across the country.

REUTERS DKA KN1905