Manipur kids forced to beg in Kerala rescued

IMPHAL: At least eight Manipuri Muslim kids have been rescued recently by Kerala Police from a railway station of the southern state. The children - all boys below 14 years - are from two neighboring Muslim pockets in Imphal East.
On Friday, Manipur social welfare department officials handed them over to their parents.
On February 23, two miscreants - Md Sahir Ahmed (25) and Rahiz Khan (23) - took the kids to Kerala after assuring their poor parents of giving free Islamic education and accommodation to their sons in a home run by an Islamic trust at Nettor in Kerela. Kerala Police launched a crackdown and rescued the children following a complaint lodged by authorities of an authorized children's home saying that kids were used as beggars at a railway station in Ernakulam district by the two accused.
Manipur social welfare department officials said Kerala Police, while taking the duo in their custody, also intimated the matter to their Manipur counterparts. Following the intimation, the department sent representatives of Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) and brought back the kids to Imphal a few days ago and kept at the department-run observation centre here.