Hyderabad: In a landmark move, successful raids were conducted on two booksellers, Sonhari Bookland and Student Link, both located in Qasimabad, for allegedly selling pirated copies of Oxford University Press textbooks.
With the assistance of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), around 60 pirated copies of Oxford textbooks were seized during the raid conducted at Sonahri Bookland. The confiscated books comprised various textbook series including Oxford Classic Playscript, Oxford School Shakespeare, Economics, New Syllabus Mathematics, and Countdown.
During the second raid carried out at Student Link, 86 pirated copies of Oxford textbooks were seized during the raid. The confiscated books comprised textbook series including New Countdown, Oxford Modern Playscripts, Ginn Mathematics, New Oxford Primary Science, NCGM Ginn Mathematics, Urdu ka Guldasta, Oxford Pocket School Thesaurus, New Syllabus D Mathematics, Career Maths Help Book, Nardban-e-Urdu, and Ginn Reading 360 Level.
Abdul Qadir, owner of Sonahri Bookland, was arrested by the FIA and an FIR has been lodged against him. All pirated material has been impounded by the FIA and the premises have been sealed off. A second FIR was lodged against Aaamir Bhutto, the owner of Student Link, on the charges of selling pirated books and he has also been taken into custody for further interrogation.
Such infringements of Intellectual Property Rights cause massive losses to the publishing industry, the authors, the Pakistan government, as well as the parents and pupils who are cheated into buying sub-standard, pirated books.
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