JHAPA: Indian police have rescued seven Nepali teenage girls from suspected human trafficking at the Panitanki border point, according to Maiti Nepal’s Koshi Province coordinator Govinda Ghimire.
The rescue took place on Friday, and the girls, all from Sankhuwasabha district, were taken into custody along with two men accused of trafficking them. They are currently being held at the Khoribari police station in India.
One of the suspects has been identified as Dipesh Gurung, 41, of Toribari in Darjeeling, India, and the other as Japan Gurung, 61, of Makalu-3 in Sankhuwasabha. Police say the men lured the girls with promises of foreign employment in Hong Kong and took them across Nepal’s eastern border at Kakarbhitta to Panitanki, intending to make fake Aadhaar cards and other documents in Siliguri.
Ghimire said a Maiti Nepal team traveled to Panitanki the same day to bring the girls back to Nepal, but Indian authorities cited pending legal procedures as the reason for keeping them at Khoribari station.
Nepal Police at the Kakarbhitta Area Police Office said they have not yet received official information on the incident from their Indian counterparts.
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