AIZAWL, May 6 - Twelve persons, including eight young women and four minor boys, believed to be Rohingya Muslims, were rescued from suspected human trafficking here late on Sunday.
Acting on a report, a joint team of police and Mizoram�s largest NGO Young Mizo Association, rescued the victims from a house at Edenthar neighbourhood under Bawngkawn police station in northern Aizawl, police said.
They are now lodged in Bawngkawn police station. Deputy Inspector of Police (Northern Range) Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said it is suspected that they were victims of human trafficking.
He said the rescued persons had some mobile phones without SIM cards in their possession and no documents. �Investigation is on to find out their identities,� he said.
Denghliri, a woman from whose house the victims were rescued, told police that this was the fifth time that she accommodated unknown �guests� in her house.
She said her nephew in Tahan, Myanmar, called up and informed her that someone would bring a group of non-locals to her house. He also asked that she should give them accommodation. �After they stayed here for a night, they were transported to Myanmar,� she said.
They were picked from her house by different drivers, she said.
The rescued persons did not possess any document and could hardly speak Hindi, police said. They informed police that they were brought from Bangladesh�s refugee camp via Karimganj in Assam. This was the third time that suspected victims of human trafficking were rescued in Mizoram in the last few weeks.
On April 25, eight Rohingya women were apprehended by the police near the Vairengte police check gate along the Assam-Mizoram border while trying to enter Mizoram without proper documents. The women, aged between 18 to 22, had claimed that they were from Kutupalong refugee camp at Sabulara in Bangladesh and were abducted by a group of men on April 19 and brought to Mizoram by truck.
Last week, 23 girls from Nepal allegedly trafficked for flesh trade were rescued by Mizoram police. Mizoram Inspector General of Police (intelligence and law and order) LH Shanliana said that the Nepali girls, believed to be victims of human trafficking, were rescued from Aizawl and Champhai near Myanmar border.
These incidents have prompted the central committee of YMA to form a study team to investigate into information received that Mizoram has of late become a human trafficking route.
