Crime

Shanti Sudhar Griha (Peace Rehabilitation Home), an NGO, has said it had rescued 246 women at risk of trafficking from four border crossings and one counseling centre in Banke district in the fiscal year 2021-22. 

Among those rescued, 32 women were from Banke, as many from Bardia, 28 from Dang, 24 from Surkhet, 20 from Jajarkot, and 20 from Salyan.

Similarly, 16 women were rescued from Rukum West, 12 from Kailali, 11 from Dailekh, 10 from Rolpa, 10 from Kalikot, and five from Jumla. The rescued women are in the age group of 16 to 25 years. 

Bhumiraj Bhattarai, the regional coordinator of the NGO, informed that they were rescued from different counseling centres located in Suiya of Narenapur Rural Municipality-1, Khadaicha in Duduwa Rural Municipality-1, Shiupuri in Janaki Rural Municipality-1, Jamunah and Kohalpur.

Explaining the complicated nature of the human trafficking problem, Bhattarai said they had stepped up surveillance at 14 checkpoints in Lumbini province and brought a temporary home into operation in Banke to rehabilitate the rescued people. 

Bhattarai said the organisation had helped the security agencies book five people on trafficking charges in a year. 

According to him, cases of human trafficking were filed against two persons and a case of rape against another two and a case of human trafficking and rape against a person at the Banke District Police Office.

"After getting a tip-off that we have been taken to India, there have been various  problems from arranging documents with the police there," he said. 

Nirmal Subedi, coordinator of the NGO in Banke, said that six girls were rescued from Jamunah crossing alone.

They were rescued from Unnau in Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh. 

The perpetrators had employed a new method to take the young women across the border into India, Subedi said, explaining that the perpetrators tried to smuggle the women posing them as members of a networking business by forcing them to wear burqa. 

- RSS