12 more Rohingya Muslim youths rescued in Mizoram

Aizawl: The Mizoram Police have rescued 12 young Rohingya Muslim boys and girls, suspected to be victims of human trafficking after they entered the bordering northeast state from Bangladesh without valid travel documents, officials said on Monday.

With this, as many as 43 young girls and boys of Nepali and Myanmarese Rohingya descent have been rescued by the Mizoram Police in the last fortnight.

“Acting on a tip-off, the police rescued eight young girls and four young boys from a house in Bawngkawn in Aizawl district late on Sunday. Those rescued were possibly victims of human trafficking,” Aizawl District Police Chief Karthik Kashyap told IANS, adding that the rescued have now been lodged at different protective and welfare homes after taking permission from the court.

A fortnight ago, the Mizoram Police had rescued 23 teenage Nepali girls and eight Rohingya Muslim girls from two different locations in the state, who were also suspected to be victims of human trafficking.

“The police and the other law enforcement agencies are investigating the matter. The police have also been put on alert against human trafficking making Mizoram its corridor,” Kashyap said.

Another police officer said that the 12 rescued youth told the police that they were from Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh and were abducted by a group of men in the third week of April and brought to Mizoram by truck.

According to the Border Security Force (BSF) and the police in Tripura, Mizoram and Assam, over 200 Rohingya Muslims were detained during the past one year in Tripura, southern Assam and Mizoram after they fled the Rohingya refugee camps in Chittagong in southeast Bangladesh.

Over 738,000 Rohingya Muslims from the Rakhine state in western Myanmar have arrived in the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh since the beginning of the ethnic troubles there on August 25, 2017, following a wave of violence and persecution, which has been described by the United Nations as an attempt at "ethnic cleansing". On and off, the Rohingya Muslims from Bangladeshi refugee camps have entered the northeastern states of India illegally in search of jobs or after being trapped in human trafficking.

Four northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Manipur (398 km), Nagaland (215 km) and Mizoram (510 km) -- share 1,643 km unfenced border with Myanmar while Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km) share a 1,880 km border with Bangladesh. The mountainous terrains, dense forests and other hindrances have made most parts of the unfenced borders porous and vulnerable, enabling illegal immigrants and intruders cross over without any hurdle. (IANS)

Also read: Mizoram news