Punjabi bonded labourers escape from Kashmir Kiln

Hoshiarpur, Aug 8 (UNI) Three youths from Punjab, who were forced to work as bonded labour by a brick kiln owner in Jammu and Kashmir, managed to flee and reached their village Padrana of the district this morning.

Harjinder Kumar, Des Raj and Ram Krishan who had managed to escape from the kiln in Anantnag district said that the labour contractor Harmesh Lal alias Bhola, who had taken them to Anantnag on the promise of getting them the job of plucking apples in orchards last month, left them with the brick kiln owner instead, where they were treated like slaves and not allowed to leave.

They had escaped during the night of August 6 and travelled 15 Km on foot, passing through dense forest and reached Jammu town at 0700 hrs from where they boarded the bus to Hoshiarpur.

Subhash, Ajay, Pawan, Ram Krishan and Santokh Singh were still under the clutches of kiln owner, they said and urged the Jammu and Kashmir government to get the remaining bonded labourers liberated from the said kiln.

They had earlier contacted their families from an STD PCO located in the hamlet covered with dense forest on August 3, 2007.

On coming to know of this, the owner threatened them with dire consequences.

When the relatives of three of them from Punjab reached there, the kiln owner started harassing them and said that he would release them only if the advance money paid by him to the labour contractor of Gurdaspur was returned to him.

Their relatives were also still at Anantnag, they said.

UNI