GUWAHATI: Forty children from Assam were rescued from Sikkim by the police who busted a thriving inter-state human trafficking racket and arrested two gang members.
The rescued were among 80 children trafficked from four villages of Bodoland Territorial Region in Assam.
Official sources said the arrest of the two traffickers, Krishna Yogi and Tika Ram Ghimiray, led to the rescue.
With this latest case, 107 Assam children and women were rescued from different parts of the country in the last two months.
The trail was unravelled after the Kalimpong police had intercepted a 13-year-old child being trafficked to Sikkim from Shantipur area of Assam’s Chirang district.
On being alerted, an Assam police team reached Bengal and took custody of Yogi and Ghimiray. During their interrogation, it emerged that several children were trafficked from Assam’s Runikhata area to Sikkim.
Another police team was sent to Sikkim on July 19. After three days of sustained efforts with the help of Sikkim police and Child Welfare Committee, 40 children and two adults were rescued.
“While 16 are girls, the remaining 24 are boys. Efforts are on to rescue other children and apprehend the culprits involved,” a source said,
‘Policy soon for rehabilitation’
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said his government would adopt a child rehabilitation policy to secure future of such children.
The policy would address emotional issues of the minors so that they could become resourceful citizens after getting the right education, Sarma said, adding that he would visit the villages of the children and talk to their parents to solve the issue permanently