A teenage girl from Gorkha, the epicentre of the devastating earthquake of April 25 last year, has been rescued from the clutches of suspected human trafficking ring at the Birgunj customs point. 

Security personnel stopped the girl and two persons as they were crossing the border into India three days ago. 

The 16-year-old girl told security personnel that she was going to India “with uncles” to meet their relatives. But when police interrogated them separately, it emerged that she was being trafficked into India. 

“I agreed to travel with them to India after being promised a good job there,” said the girl.

Police have rescued 73 India-bound children and women from Birgunj in the past three months. Among them, 36 were women aged between 18 and 25, 24 were girls aged 12-16 and the rest were below 12 years of age, said police. 

Police had rescued six women from the Birgunj border point last week. They were also going to India with a female agent. 

“After investigation, we found that they were being trafficked into India,” said DSP Hobindra Bogati, adding that most of the women and girls who have been rescued are from quake-hit districts, exposing the vulnerability of women and children from the districts that were devastated by the earthquake last year. 

About 15,000 girls from Nepal are trafficked into Asian countries for sex trade each year, according to a UN estimate. 

An investigating officer said agents are providing just around Rs 5,000 to the families and taking their children to India with the promise of “lucrative jobs”. 

Police said they had rescued as many as 72 India-bound children and women from the Birgunj border point last year. 

Sangita Puri, a coordinator at Maiti Nepal, an organisation working for the welfare of women in Parsa, said the children and women of quake-displaced families are at high risk of trafficking.