A 13-year-old trafficked Lakhimpur girl was rescued by Lakhimpur police on Sunday evening from Dumporijo village in Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh.
The teenager was rescued from a house where she was held captive and was forced into slavery.
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The rescued girl has been identified as a resident of Bokanadi under Dolahat Police Outpost of Laluk Police Station, Lakhimpur.
Police informed that the girl was taken away by a woman five years ago when she was only eight-year-old.
She was lured with a good life and proper education in Arunachal Pradesh.
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“The family had no information regarding her whereabouts. Recently she contacted her family over the phone and informed that she was held captive as a slave in a house in Dumporijo in Arunachal Pradesh,” police said.
“Upon receiving the information the girl’s father registered a case at Dolahat Police Outpost with the help of All Tea Tribe Students’ Association (ATTSA),” police added.
Inspector-in-Charge of Dolahat Outpost informed the case to Lakhimpur DSP Runa Neog, the Nodal Officer, Anti Human Trafficking Unit of district police who contacted the Arunachal Pradesh police to rescue the trafficked girl.
A team of Lakhimpur police led by ASI Diganta Kalita, Head Constable Tarun Chetry, woman police Rupali Borah and driver Sahu rescued the girl from her captivity on Sunday after completing an arduous journey of thirteen hours in one of the most inhospitable terrains of the neighbouring state.
Rescue of the Lakhimpur teenager has once again brought to light the cases of hundreds of trafficked girls from Assam kept in captivity in the remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh bordering China.
It may be mentioned here that on July 2 earlier this year, a girl from Behali in Sonitpur district was rescued from nine years of captivity from Taksing, 300 km north from Dumporijo.
The girl was taken from her parents when she was only seven-year-old.
In Taksin, she was forced to work as a slave with and was served with minimum food and clothes.
“She was forced to work for more than twelve hours a day in jhum plantations along with other dozens of trafficked children from Assam,” police said.
It is worth mentioning here that the important angle to this unabated trafficking of girls from north Assam to Arunachal Pradesh is the use of mobile phones and transportation of the victims.
Most of the (targeted) victims are contacted directly by the traffickers who pretend to marry them.
The girls are asked to take transport vehicles operated from various places like North Lakhimpur and Tezpur for the destinations inside Arunachal Pradesh.
The drivers of these taxis play an important role in picking and dropping the girls.
This is a common scenario in Arunachal Pradesh where many young persons from Assam are seen engaged as slaves and almost all of them were taken up by various traffickers promising jobs and better living.