By IANS
Agartala : The police in Tripura and Assam have launched an investigation following local media reports that some 49 tribal children went missing from the two states after a gang lured them with promises of better education, officials said.
“We have learnt that 35 children from Reang tribal refugee camps were taken by a racket, promising to educate them in good schools. We believe the children might have been engaged in some manual work outside,” North Tripura district magistrate Santanu Das said.
Local newspapers reported the same racket lured 14 minor Reang tribal boys from southern Assam’s Hailakandi area.
Guardians have lodged separate complaints with the Kanchanpur police station in north Tripura and the Kathalchari police station in Hailakandi.
Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) president Elvis Chorkhy said eight children returned to their parents in the refugee camps and reported that they were engaged in domestic works in Meghalaya, Nagaland and other places.
“Taking the advantage of illiteracy and abject poverty of the Reang tribals, some people making false promises have taken away the children. It is possible some of the children were used for immoral work,” Chorkhy told journalists.
More than 33,000 Reang (locally called ‘Bru’) tribal refugees have been sheltered in six north Tripura camps for the past 10 years following ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos in Mizoram.