Mizoram cops rescue Rohingya girls

Aizawl: Eight Rohingya girls, suspected to be victims of human trafficking, were rescued from a village near the Mizoram-Myanmar border in Champai district, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police of Northern Range Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said here on Tuesday.
The girls, all of them minors, were rescued from Dungtkang village on Monday, the DIG said, adding that they were being taken to Myanmar from Bangladesh via India. Khiangte told PTI that the girls were produced before the chief judicial magistrate on Tuesday.
He said police have not ruled out the involvement of human traffickers operating in the Sabulara area in Bangladesh where the Rohingya refugees were given shelter.
“Though they were travelling and entering Mizoram without valid documents, the court is not likely to send them to police custody. They will be either handed over to NGOs or women protective homes run by the Social Welfare Department,” he said.
Eight Rohingya women, who were trying to enter Mizoram without any travel documents, were detained by the state police at the Mizoram-Assam border Vairengte Police check-post on April 25.
They had claimed that they were from Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. They also told police that some people abducted them from a market in Bangladesh on April 19 and brought them to Silchar in Assam. The rescued Rohingya women have been kept in a Social Welfare Department-run protective home for women. (PTI)