Kathmandu, March 23

Ten Nepali girls and women, including as young as 15-year-old, have been rescued from the clutches of human traffickers who had held the girls and women captive inside a flat in New Delhi of India and forced them into prostitution.

The Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau of Nepal Police had taken the initiative to rescue the victims after their loved ones filed a police complaint.

Police had informed the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi about the issue, making the rescue mission possible. On March 18, the girls aged between 15 to 30 were rescued in a covert mission called 'Mission Flat'.

The mission was made possible with the help of Indian and Nepal-based NGOs and Nepal Police Senior Superintendent of Police Uma Kanta Chaturvedi stationed at the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi.

The age of the rescued victims range from 15 to 25 years. They are from Nu-wakot, Kathmandu, Kaski and Khotang districts, as per police.

Most of the girls were lured to Delhi by their close friends, neighbours or kin on the pretext of providing them decent jobs.

However, they were taken into a flat operated by a Nepali woman who forced them into prostitution.

The case came to light after Kaski District Police started a search mission of four young girls. The girls had gone missing around a month ago.

Their parents had filed a complaint with the police that the girls might have been lured to India by a man who disguised himself as their boyfriend.

The rescued have been brought to the country. The AHTB is recording their statements.

Meanwhile, police are yet to arrest the perpetrators who lured the girls and forced them into prostitution.

Superintendent of Police Krishna Prasad Pangeni of AHTB said, 'We are now operating a mission to arrest people involved in the trafficking.

We have come close to accomplishing the mission.'

A version of this article appears in the print on March 24, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.