8 girls among 10 Brus rescued in Tripura

Agartala, February 4 (PTI): Eight girls and two women from the Bru community were rescued here after they fled a rehabilitation camp in North Tripura district in search of jobs, police said on Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, police raided Chandrapur bus terminus in Agartala on Wednesday and rescued the girls and the women who escaped the rehabilitation camp in Kanchanpur with the help of a middleman, officer-in-charge of East Agartala police station, Mumtaz Begum, said.

They were handed over to ChildLine for accommodation in a shelter home, she said.

"If their guardians are identified, the rescued persons will be handed over to them," Begum said.

It is yet to be ascertained whether it is a case of human trafficking or not, a ChildLine official said.

Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum secretary Bruno Msha said, "It is unfortunate that they fled the camps.

Generally, anyone going out has to make an entry in a register. We are also trying to find out the truth."

There are eight camps in Tripura for Brus who fled neighbouring Mizoram in waves following ethnic clashes.