KOHALPUR, March 30: On May 15, 2016, a 19-year-old girl of Sindhupalchowk was rescued by police from Kohalpur bus station. Lakpa Sonam Lama, 36, and Dindu Tamang, 26 of Sindhupalchowk were caught red-handed while transporting the girl to India. They had persuaded the girl into travelling with them to India luring her with good job. They had successfully crossed all the check points while leaving their home district. After a tip-off, police reached the spot and nabbed them.
Similarly, on February 26, 2017, a girl was lured into marry a person she did not know in return for a piece of land. She was taken to Punjab of India the next day. After reaching there, she was raped almost every single day by different people. After being unable to bear the torture, the victim called her elder sister who was in Gadwala of India on October 15, 2017. She was somehow able to escape and later filed a complaint against the perpetrators after returning to Nepal.
Human trafficking through Pashupatinagar on the rise
Likewise, on February 20, 2017, police rescued two girls from Kohalpur including a fifteen-year-old girl of Surkhet. According to police, an agent named Nirajan BK had promised them employment in his firm based in Tulsipur of Dang. The father of one of the girls, who was accompanying them in the journey, got suspicious and reported to the police after BK told the girls to speak confidently with the police at Kohalpur border.
These cases are just the representative cases. It has been found that human traffickers have been using Kohalpur as a transit point to transport women to various countries. According to police, most of the girls are smuggled to India with false promises of lucrative jobs.
Apan Bhatta, in-charge of KI Nepal, Banke informed that human trafficking is increasing with the development of information technology. "Use of technology has made it easier for the traffickers to reach out to the girls and women in remote villages," said Bhatta. On March 25, preparations were underway to marry off a 14-year-old girl of Kohalpur with a 22-year-old boy of Puranpur, India. However, the girl got aware about the ill-intention of the agents and informed her parents. Later, police arrested Shitali Nepali, 60, of Kohalpur and Suryojit Singh, 55, and Satnam Thakur, 22, of Paranpur, Jarpura from Kohalpur-12.
As per the investigation of police, the network of traffickers has been spreading rampantly in Nepal. The agents involved in attempting to transport two girls of Sindhupalchowk were paid Rs 150,000 by the traffickers. It was found that those agents had already trafficked altogether 25 women of Sindhupalchowk to India.
"As we have tightened security at the border points, traffickers have started using airways these days," said Inspector Yagya Prasad Bhattarai, chief of Kolhapur Police.
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