GUWAHATI, Jan 14 - The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) successfully rescued as many as 669 minor boys and girls from railway premises in the NFR zone, including stations and trains, during 2018.
�Altogether 669 minor boys and girls were rescued from railway premises by the RPF in the NF Railway zone before they could be lured by antisocial elements during the period from January 1 to December 31, 2018. Besides, nine human traffickers were also caught red-handed while transporting minor girls in trains,� Pranav Jyoti Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer of NFR, said.
He said that in one such case, on December 17, 2018, acting on information regarding running away of five minor boys from their homes in Dimapur and travelling by train, the Crime Prevention and Detection Squad (CPDS) team comprising Head Constable Bikram Bose and Constable AK Singh checked the Brahmaputra Mail and detected three of the minor boys.
�Further, as per the information provided by the rescued boys, search was conducted in the Janshatabdi Express on December 18 by RPF Inspector Nayeem Uddin and staff of Lumding Post at the Lumding railway station and they detected the two other boys. All the boys are from Rangapahar Crossing Gate No.1 area of Dimapur. The parents of the rescued boys were informed over phone and subsequently the rescued minors were handed over to their respective parents after proper identification,� said Sharma.
He said that in another case, on January 1 this year, RPF Assistant Sub-Inspector SN Singh, Lady Head Constable Sujata Das and Lady Constable S Pandey of RPF Post Katihar (East), while conducting a check at the Katihar railway station, rescued one missing minor boy from a platform.
The boy had gone missing at the Katihar station while travelling in the Chandigarh Express along with his parents.
�Announcement was made through the PA system and his parents turned up. Later on, the rescued boy was handed over to his parents after proper identification,� said the NFR CPRO.
He said that RPF has been successfully rescuing runaway children as well as children from the clutch of traffickers regularly along with arrest of traffickers.
�Rescued children are normally handed over to their parents or to NGOs like Child Line. Various squads of RPF are regularly conducting checks on railway premises to prevent such cases. It is known that gangs of traffickers who try to take children and women away to other parts of the country are very much active in this region. The arrested traffickers are being handed over to the Government Railway Police (GRP) for appropriate action under law,� said Sharma.
