AGARTALA: Tripura police have rescued 11 tribal girls, suspected to be trafficked, and detained a man in this connection, officials said on Thursday.
Police added that they were brought to Agartala from tribal refugee camps in northern Tripura.
According to a police officer, the rescued tribal girls are now at the NGO Child Line’s home, who had helped the police in their rescue operation of these girls, two of whom are 18-years-old and others below 18 years of age.
Police officials, probing the incident, have asked the parents of the children to meet them and provide details about their daughters.
Police and Child Line officials suspect that the man, who is now being interrogated by the officials, might have promised the girls and their parents of lucrative wages for which they had to work as domestic help in different parts of western Tripura.
The arrested man told the police that the girls with the consent of their poor parents were to be engaged as domestic help at several houses in western Tripura.
However, the police did not convince about his claim, and suspect the incident could be related to human trafficking.
The rescued children are inmates of seven relief camps, where around 35,000 Reang tribal refugees have been sheltered after being fled from adjoining Mizoram 24 years ago, following ethnic strife in that state.
The tribal refugees, belonging to the backward Reang community, are now to be settled in 12 to 18 different places in Tripura in pursuance of an agreement signed in January last year between the Mizoram and Tripura government and the representatives of the refugees in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.