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Heart and Soul: Mice, Mullahs and the Begging Mafia

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A man receives a blessing from one of the "mice children" of Gujrat, Pakistan

10/08/2013 GMT

Mice, Mullahs and the Begging Mafia

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Mice, Mullahs and the Begging Mafia

Pakistan’s begging Mafia chasing the religious rupee

Mobeen Azhar visits Pakistan’s shrines and the begging mafia exploiting children for the religious rupee

In the city of Gujrat, folk law dictates that families should donate their first born to the shrine or face a curse which means all future progeny will be deformed and take on the appearance of ‘human mice’. Mobeen Azhar meets Dr Qasim Mehdi who says the ‘human mouse’ phenomena is more to do with genetics than superstition. We’ll also hear from Mohammed Ali, founder of the Roshni Project. The NGO works to unite parents with children who have been kidnapped and forced into begging. Last year over 2000 children were kidnapped in the port city of Karachi. Mohammed Ali believes many of these children will be forced into a life of begging. Mobeen Azhar visits the Roshni Project office and hears from a family whose disabled son is thought to have been kidnapped by the begging Mafia.

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