Rohingya man among 5 arrested on charges of human trafficking

Bandipora: Five people, including a Rohingya man, have been arrested in a case of alleged human trafficking in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district, police said. Bandipora Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Lakshya Sharma on Tuesday said the accused trafficked the Rohingya women through Bangladesh and got them “married” to locals in the Union Territory “in exchange for money”.
SSP Sharma said, “Five people have been arrested in connection with human trafficking. A Rohingya named Manzoor Alam was also among those arrested. “The accused trafficked Rohingya women through Bangladesh and got them married to local people in the Union Territory in exchange for money.” , SSP Sharma said, “He is the kingpin of the entire racket.” The police officer said that they have taken cognizance of the matter and a first information report has been registered.

“In the said case, two Rohingya women were found to be married and legal action has been initiated as per law,” SSP Sharma said. He said, “This is a crime in two ways. First, the illegal infiltration of Rohingya women into India from Bangladeshi refugee camps and second, their sale as brides, which is human trafficking.” The senior policeman said that on November 23, a local police station in Bandipora had received information about illegal trafficking of Rohingya women and then selling and marrying them to various people in the area in exchange for money.

“Further investigation will continue,” SSP Sharma said. Earlier in the month, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted a massive operation at 55 locations across 10 states and Union Territories (UTs) and nabbed 44 operatives in four human trafficking cases.
NIA’s investigation into the case revealed that various modules of this illegal human trafficking network were spread across various states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and were operating from there.