Hyderabad: Ten children were rescued in a joint rescue operation on February 10 by officials of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in the Secunderabad Railway station. The cops also arrested the human traffickers have been arrested. The children were rescued by the Government Railway Police, RPF, District Child Protection Unit, and the ‘Bachpan Bachao Andolan’ from the East Coast Express at the railway station.
The five human traffickers have been arrested and FIRs were registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 370 and 374 r/w 38. Railway Police raided the train from Warangal to Secunderabad and caught the 5 traffickers while rescuing 10 children.
A complaint was filed by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan NGO coordinator following which the FIR has been lodged on the traffickers. The 10 rescued boys were shifted to the Saifabad Government Children Home for Boys.
During the operation, RPF identified train routes that are mostly likely to be used for trafficking and regularly performs search and rescue operations. Under this exercise, Anti-Human Trafficking team from the RPF identified the children travelling from Kolkata to Hyderabad and rescued them. These children were accompanied by 5 men, identified as the traffickers by the police. Eight of the children belong to West Bengal and two from Bihar. They are all in the age group 14 to 16.
“This is a well planned exercise for these people, Aadhar cards are fabricated and given to the children before they board the trains, in which the date of birth is changed to 18. The police investigate these details and the children are repatriated back to their hometowns through the Child Welfare Commission,” said the NGO rescue operations coordinator Venkateshwar speaking to Siasat.com
Earlier on February 3, 27 children were rescued in a similar operation by the RPF with cooperation from Bachpan Bachao Andolan.
