Islamabad, October 23, 2002
The Tribune

An Iranian court has sentenced 40 Pakistanis to varying jail terms for smuggling teenaged girls to Pakistan for prostitution.

A Pakistani daily, ‘The News International', quoting an Iranian newspaper ‘Khorassan', said today that these Pakistani nationals presented themselves to the poor Iranian families and sought their young daughters' hand in marriage. After marriage, they usually came back to Pakistan and sold these girls, aged between 12 and 20 years, to brothels.

The Iranian judge, Justice Reza Daneshvar Sara, handing down the judgement, said, “The girls who managed to escape from these brothels and were somehow brought to Iran were in a state of mental and physical trauma.”

The other accused, who had helped the girls in their escape back to Iran, were granted “Islamic forgiveness”.

Asking all accused to hand themselves over to the Iranian authorities, Mr Justice Sara said, “In case they do not do that, they will be declared absconders and the case will be handed over to Interpol.” UNI