Assam: Minor girls from Barak Valley ‘rescued’ at airport

SILCHAR: Two minor girls from southern Assam’s Barak Valley, about to fly to Mumbai and Bengaluru to meet their “lovers” on Monday, were caught by security officials in Cachar district’s Kumbhirgram airport on that day.

Sources said the two girls were caught at the airport, around 24km from Silchar town, by security officials on Monday after the personnel found them without guardians and grew suspicious of their body language. After taking the girls under custody, the security officials informed the Kumbhirgram police outpost, following which a team of policemen reached the airport and took the girls to the outpost. The girls were handed over to their families, the sources added.

A source at the airport said after the girls were caught by security officials at the airport, the mobile phones of the youths they were supposed to meet in Mumbai and Bengaluru were found switched off. The security officials asked the girls about the men but they did not divulge any information about them.

Another source said a police investigation found that the girls had got introduced to the youths on social media and later “fell in love” with them. One of the girls hails from the Cachar district’s Joypur while another girl is a resident of the Karimganj district’s Kanishail. Police are inquiring (using the mobile phone numbers of the youths, which they got from the girls) to find out if there was any evil motive of the youths. Police are also probing to find out if there is any female trafficking angle in the case. It is suspected that the youths lured the girls into “falling in love” with them and the girls, being minors and unable to understand their wicked motive, believed the youths blindly and chose to cross all barriers by leaving their families just to be with them, the source added. 

n December 26 last year, a minor girl from Hailakandi district, allegedly abducted around five months ago, was rescued from Maharashtra. Earlier in December last year, six minor girls from Assam were rescued from the clutches of human traffickers in various parts of the country.

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