Manipur Police Friday rescued as many as 40 Nepali girls from Moreh
town bordering Myanmar in Tengnoupal district and arrested a trafficker
who was accompanying them. The girls are believed to have been on their
way to be trafficked to different cities of South Asian and Middle-east
countries through Myanmar.
The arrested man has been identified as Asha Kali Tamang, 42, hailing
from Sindhupalchok, Nepal. Police said the girls were rescued from
different places of Moreh town during separate search operations which
began from early Friday morning.
Speaking to media, Montu Ahanthem-convenor of the MARC
revealed that one of its member who is currently in Delhi provided the
information that the Delhi Women’s Commission had rescued 3 Nepali girls
from Delhi. These three girls had disclosed that a large number of
Nepali girls were being taken to India, he said.
Maiti Nepal, a Nepal based NGO working on trafficking, confirmed
about this information and an alert was sounded. As per the Maiti Nepal,
after questioning the three rescued girls from Delhi, it came to be
known that other girls were travelling towards North East to cross the
border towards Myanmar, said Ahanthem.
After receiving the information, the MACR immediately informed the
police team to conduct search and rescue operation of the trafficked
girls. The Tengnoupal district police under the supervision of its
Superintendent of Police, Dr. S Ibomcha, swung into action and initially
rescued 16 girls early Friday morning during a search operation
conducted at Moreh town. Police said the rescue operation began since
8:30 in the morning.
“The 16 girls were rescued from Integrated Check Post, Moreh. They
were sent by one Rajiv Sharma, Sunauli town, Nepal with the assistance
of some other unknown traffickers”, said the district SP Dr. S Ibomcha.
The police team in their continued operation further rescued four more
girls and arrested a trafficker from a Hotel.
Later in the evening, 20 more girls were rescued from Raj cottage,
Moreh who were trafficked by one Madan from Nepal. However, the
trafficker is still at large, the police informed. “This is a major
rescue operation at which without the help of police it would have been
impossible”, said Montu Ahanthem convenor of MACR.
In separate operation Imphal West police also rescued another 61
women from a hotel in Imphal late in the evening. The police team also
arrested one more man believed to be one of the traffickers from the
same hotel. While police are not in the position to give any details, it
is believed that rescued women could be victims of the same racket
which was busted by the police in Moreh border town earlier today.
He informed that the rescued girls will be accommodated at Ujjwala
Home run by Center for Development Activities (CDAC). The deportation of
the girls shall be processed after proper verification, he said.
The MACR convener said that Manipur has now become one of the
gateways of human trafficking the Government should take a serious note
of it and include a certain provision in the Act East Policy to curtain
this issue.
