Kathmandu, Nov 9

The police have rescued 12 Nepali girls being trafficked to India. Of them, four were rescued from the Indian border in Parsa district and the remaining from India.]

The girls were taken to the border from Balaju in Kathmandu under the pretext of providing a job at musical programmes in Siraha and Sarlahi districts in Nepal, it has been said. They were lured with Rs 2,000 each for a stage show. The girls were divided into various groups after reaching a forest in Pathalaiya and were taken to the Indian border and then to India through an alternative transit in Parsa district, said Indra Raj Bhattarai, director of a social organisation, Afanta Nepal, which helped rescue the trafficked girls.

The rescued girls are now under the care of the Afanta Nepal. A man who accompanied them has been arrested by the police. The girls were trafficked to India taking advantage of their poverty, unemployment and ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, said Bhattarai.