Lakhimpur police with the help of an organization arrested three women and two men in Assam’s North Lakhimpur on Wednesday for their alleged involvement in bride trafficking.

The arrested men have been identified as Amit Kumar Shikwal, 22, and Mangilal Shikwal, 28, from Bikaner district, Rajasthan, who allegedly came to Lakhimpur for taking brides to Rajasthan.

Acting on a tip of, police arrested the two Rajasthani men with three women from the Ganesh Mandir premises in Lakhimpur.

The Lakhimpur police arrested one Jyostna Banu, 30, who contacted the men from Rajasthan for taking the bride from Lakhimpur.

Jyostna, a resident of Chaprigaon in Lakhimpur, who herself a victim of bridal trafficking is now acting as an agent for the same being unaware of the fact.

It is often reported that young girls from the peripherals areas in the Lakhimpur district have been trafficked as brides to Rajasthan and other parts of North West India for the last several years.

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Traffickers, with some local agents, roam in remote areas of the district in search of girls to be taken to different parts of the country as brides.

There have been regular reports of complaints of violence, atrocities and exploitations on such trafficked girls by their husbands and in-laws from the victims as well as their parents.

Farhana Ahmed is Northeast Now Correspondent in North Lakhimpur. She can be reached at: [email protected]