Kolkata: An Indian woman and her Bangladeshi husband has been arrested in southeastern Bangladesh on charges of abducting five Indian children, officials said on Monday.
“The woman, who hails from Tripura and married to a Bangladeshi, trafficked five Indian children ...we tracked them two days ago and then arrested them overnight,” police chief of the southwestern Noakhali district Elias Sharif said.
The children, from Tripura, aged between 3 to 12 years were sent to a facility of the government’s social welfare department. The couple, Bahar Ullah and Rehana Begum, was kept in police custody.
The children, he said, belonged to different families in the neighbourhood in Tripura and they told police that the 45-year-old woman lured them to travel to Bangladesh with her for witnessing the Durga Puja and other festivals.
The authorities in Noakhali district contacted Indian officials following the arrest of the couple while Tripura’s Radhakrishna Police Station confirmed the abduction of five children from the area, an official said.
“We also called the father of one of the abducted boy by phone confirming that his son and other children were in safe custody in Bangladesh,” he added.
