BSF hands over girl caught in trafficking web to Bangladesh

, Mar 6: In a goodwill gesture, Indian border guards have handed back to Bangaldesh a 13-year-old girl who was allegedly being trafficked through a riverine area along the international frontier.

The incident occurred on March 4 when a patrol party of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Gunarmath area of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal detected some movement along the bank of Ichhamati river along the Indo-Bangla border.

On being challenged, two people, alleged to be Bangladeshi criminals, ran away leaving behind a young girl who hails from Fene district of Bangladesh. The girl, according to BSF officers, said she was being trafficked by some of her acquaintances and was made to board a boat on Tuesday night.

The people accompanying her ran away after the two alleged criminals spotted them in the boat and those taking her slipped away mistaking them to be policemen. The two criminals then brought the girl on the Indian side of the river with an intention to assault her, but a BSF patrol passing through the area challenged them.

The patrol squad, the officer said, immediately summoned two of its women constables deployed in the area and rescued the girl. The two men, however, fled.

The girl was later taken to the block 'pradhan' of Kalitala village in the district who took her details and sought BSF's help to send the girl back to her country. The girl was yesterday handed over to the Bangladeshi border forces--Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB)-- after a flag meeting was called by the Indian commanders at border post Angrail (Indian side) and border post Putkhali (Bangladesh side).

The BSF guards 4,096kms of the Indo-Bangla border.

PTI