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Assam: 40 children and two adults trafficked to Sikkim, rescued
Of the 40 children rescued from Sikkim, 16 are girls and 24 are boys and two adults are women. Assam Police said efforts were on to recover more trafficked children and apprehend the human trafficking racket.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday that his government will focus on ending human trafficking apart from drugs and cattle trafficking. Sarma was interacting with a group of about 40 children and two adults that were recently rescued by the Assam Police after they were trafficked to Sikkim, officials said.
“We cannot tolerate childhood, the most promising period of one’s life, being snatched away. We cannot allow exploitation of children either. I hail Assam Police for recovering 40 children and two adults from the child traffickers,” Sarma said.
He said the state government will adopt a policy for rehabilitation of trafficked children.
Sarma said at least 107 children and women from Assam, trafficked to different parts of the country, have been rescued in the past two months.
Of the 40 children, 16 are girls and 24 are boys and two adults are women. Police said efforts were on to recover more trafficked children and apprehend the human trafficking racket.
80 children were trafficked from four villages in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) along the Indo-Bhutan border in Assam. Police used its intelligence network to establish the presence of 42 of these trafficked persons in Sikkim.
They were rescued with the help of Sikkim Police and brought back to Assam. The government would first hand over the children to their parents and with their consent, they will be sent to residential schools. The government will also seek Child Welfare Committee’s (CWC) recommendations in this regard.
