16 indigenous Tripura children rescued from Madrasa in Dhaka
On 2 January 2013 police rescued 16 indigenous Tripura children from a madrasa (Muslim education centre) named Abuzor Giffari Mosque Complex under Sabujbagh police station in Dhaka.
The police rescued them after receiving an allegation that the children were converted (to Islam) by force. The children are from Rangamati district of Chittagong Hill Tracts and belong to indigenous Tripura community. Parents of the eleven of these children took them back after signing a bond. As no parents came up for five of the children, police decided to transfer them to a government safe home.
It is mentionable that in July 2012 another 11 indigenous Tripura children escaped from Madrasas in Gazipur and Dhaka. Of them, 8 children escaped from the Darul Huda Islami Madrasa of Mia Para in Gazipur district, a female child from a madrasa in Muhammadpur and two children escaped from Darul Huda Islami Madrasa of Gulshan in Dhaka. These 11 children were taken from various villages of Thanchi, Ruma and Lama upazila in Bandarban district in January to February 2012. It is reported that the parents had to pay Tk six thousand to 15 thousand to the brokers who told the parents that their children would be taken to a mission for education and this money would be spent for educating them in the mission hostel. But actually they were taken to various madrasas (Source: Hotline Human Rights Trust, 2 Outer Circular Road, Shantibagh, Dhaka-1217, 24 July 2012).
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