NFR's RPF rescues 8 children, helps 2 women give birth on trains

Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) rescued eight children from stations across the zone and helped two women who gave birth on board trains, the railway said on Monday, November 9.

The rescues and births took place between November 4 and 6, according to NFR Chief Public Relations Officer Kapinjal Kishore Sharma. The details were published by The Hawk and several other outlets.

Children handed to care agencies

Six boys and two girls were rescued at Rangiya, New Bongaigaon and Guwahati stations in Assam, and at Katihar in Bihar and New Jalpaiguri in north Bengal, which also fall under NFR.

On November 4, RPF personnel and the Sashastra Seema Bal rescued a girl on board a train at Rangiya and handed her to the Government Railway Police. Another girl rescued at New Bongaigaon was placed with the Sakhi One Stop Centre. The same day, one boy each was rescued at Katihar, New Jalpaiguri and Guwahati. Two more boys were found at Rangiya and one at New Jalpaiguri on November 6.

All six boys were handed to child protection agencies for further care, the CPRO said. The railway did not say why the children were travelling alone.

Two babies born on trains

On November 4, RPF staff at Agartala helped a passenger who gave birth to a boy on a train. She was taken to hospital in Agartala by ambulance. The next day, a woman head constable and an RPF team at Lumding station in Assam helped another passenger who gave birth to a girl on board.

Pistols, drugs and liquor seized

In the same period, RPF teams arrested four people in four separate cases. They recovered four pistols and four magazines at Badarpur in Sribhumi district, about 1.03 kg of brown sugar valued at around Rs 2 crore at New Jalpaiguri, four pieces of fake gold worth about Rs 20,000 at Harmuti in Assam's Lakhimpur district, and a stolen mobile phone worth about Rs 17,000 at Kamakhya in Guwahati. Total recoveries were valued at about Rs 2.08 crore.

The teams also seized 13.06 kg of ganja worth about Rs 6.80 lakh and 449 bottles of liquor, and 6,750 litres of liquor were seized at Katihar.

Where NFR runs

NFR is headquartered at Maligaon in Guwahati. It runs trains across the North East and in seven districts of West Bengal and five districts of north Bihar. The railway said it would keep working with police, health workers and child protection agencies to protect children and help passengers in need.