28 kids kidnapped from Leh rescued from Jammu hostel

JAMMU: Twenty-eight children from Ladakh, including four girls, were rescued by the police from a Jammu hostel run by an NGO. Five members of Jammu-based NGO, Youth Movement for Peace (YMP), were arrested after parents complained that the children had been kidnapped.

The children are victims of flash floods in August following a cloudburst in Leh. A police team will take them to their houses in Ladakh. According to a senior police officer, ''The children will be handed over to their parents and the Ladakh Buddhist Council.'' Till then, the police have arranged for their stay in Ladakh-Kargil House near Jammu railway station.

According to police, YMP had visited Leh after the disaster to distribute aid and relief material like blankets. YMP members promised the children a better life and brought them to Jammu after the disaster, said police. They were kept in a rented accommodation in Jammu's Dogra Hall. Some parents complained to the police that the children had been taken away by YMP without their consent.

During a late night raid on Friday at YMP headquarters at Reshamgarh Colony and Dogra Hall, the children were rescued. Five YMP members, including its chairman Vikas Sharma, general secretary Gagandeep Singh and his wife Meenakshi who is a manager at YMP, were arrested.

According to sources, the children were probably brought to Jammu for religious conversion. Earlier, YMP had been accused of conversion and its funding had come under scanner. A police team led by DIG Farooq Khan had begun investigation. During the probe, YMP failed to give satisfactory reasons for bringing the Ladakh children to Jammu, said sources.