United Arab Emirates police rescue 2 kidnapped Pakistani boys

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) -- United Arab Emirates police rescued two Pakistani brothers aged 6 and 4 who had been kidnapped to work as jockeys in camel races, newspapers reported on Sunday.

They said police raided a camel farm in the oasis town of al-Ain on a tip from the Pakistani embassy and rescued the two boys, allegedly abducted and flown to the Gulf Arab state.

The 6-year-old boy, identified as Shajar, was being treated in hospital for unspecified leg injuries. He told the English-language Gulf News daily that he had been treated badly at the camel farm.

The UAE, where camel racing is popular, banned the use of young boys as camel jockeys in 1993 and specified jockeys should not weigh less than 45 kilograms (100 pounds).

A Pakistani boy in September escaped a man who had kidnapped him to make him work as a camel jockey in the UAE and at least two boys, a Pakistani and a Bangladeshi, were rescued last year after being abducted to work as jockeys in the UAE.

The newspapers said the brothers were kidnapped from their home in northwest Pakistan three months ago. They were brought illegally to the UAE through Iran by two people on forged passports and false birth certificates.

In the UAE they were sold to a Pakistani man for 20,000 dirhams ($5,445) each, the newspapers said.

Relatives of the boys, whose father works in Dubai as a gardener, informed the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, which has been involved in the past with finding seized Pakistani children.

Trust chairman Ansar Burney flew to the UAE to search for the boys and with the help of the Pakistani embassy informed the Abu Dhabi police.

Shajar told the Gulf News that the kidnappers told him he would be meeting his father in Dubai. "But when I came here they started treating me badly. Whenever I asked them about my father I was told to shut my mouth."

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