File photo showing police force.
Credit: PTI File Photo
95 children who were allegedly being transported from Bihar to Uttar Pradesh illegally were rescued by UP Child Commission, ANI reported.
"At around 9 am, UP Child Commission member Suchitra Chaturvedi called and said that from Bihar, minor children are being transported to Saharanpur illegally and that they're were in Gorakhpur and will go via Ayodhya. We rescued the children and they were given food and medical assistance," ANI quoted Ayodhya Child Welfare Committee, Chairperson Sarvesh Awasthi.
Awasthi added that the children who were rescued were between the age of 4-12. The incident raised concerns surrounding child trafficking.
"Those people who brought the children had no consent letters from parents. Children are between the age of 4-12 and most of them said they didn't know where they were being taken. Parents are being contacted and children will be handed over once they arrive. There were a total of 95 children," the CWC Chairperson said, as per the agency.
Chairperson, of the National Commission for Protection Of Child Rights, Priyank Kanoongo, shared shared a post on X which says, "Innocent children who were being sent to madrasas in other states from Bihar have been rescued in Gorakhpur with the help of Uttar Pradesh State Child Commission on the instructions of @NCPCR,"
"The Constitution of India has given the right to education to every child. It is compulsory for every child to go to school. In such a situation, taking poor children to other states and keeping them in madrasas to earn donations on the basis of religion is a violation of the Constitution," he added.
"To prevent such crimes, it is necessary to lodge an FIR in the incident, which the Gorakhpur Railway Police has not done yet."