Cops storm ´caged children´
July 3, 2003 21:36 - (SA)

Lusaka - Police in Zambia have stormed a secret
Islamic school in which 280 children were
allegedly confined in cages and forced to study
military tactics and Arabic, a police officer told
AFP on Thursday.

The children, all of them teenage boys, were
incarcerated at the school in a populous suburb of
the capital Lusaka and also forced into studying
Islam, one officer who took part in the operation
said.

He said Iqbal Patel, an Asian man in charge of the
school, was arrested and charged with "child
abuse, confinement and failing to provide
necessities to children".

According to the police the boys were lured from
rural areas in Zambia by a promise that they would
be sent abroad after they received training at the
school.

Seven of the teenagers were very sick and unable
to walk, police said. - Sapa-AFP

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