Behrampore, Aug. 27: Three girls who were “rescued” from “traffickers” by Bengal police want to go back, to Mumbai and Kashmir.

Urmila Khatun, 20, and Meera Khatun, 18, claim they had jobs in Mumbai and Anjuba Khatoon, 16, said she was married to a Kashmiri.

All three girls were brought back by the police on the basis of complaints by NGOs and a political party.

Urmila Khatun left Islampur, 240 km from Calcutta, for Mumbai with her aunt’s son-in-law Ashraful Sheikh, a mason in the city, to look for a job in July last year. He took Urmila to one Mumtaz Begum who found her the job of a full-time maid for a monthly salary of Rs 2,000.

Meera Khatun, from the same village, said she heard about Urmila and went to Ashraful with her parents when he returned three months later. In October, he took Meera also to Mumtaz, who got her a job in her beauty parlour for Rs 2,500 a month.

However, in May this year, two local SUCI workers and an NGO met Meera’s mother Angeza Bibi and told her Ashraful had sold her daughter and Urmila to a brothel.

Angeza was reluctant to go to the police. But as word spread in the village, she did.

When Ashraful came to Dangapara in June, the police detained him. He called up Mumtaz, who brought Meera and Urmila. The girls told police Ashraful was not at fault, following which he was freed.

“I am trying to contact Mumtaz Begum again for the job,” said Urmila. Meera, too, said she was eager to go back.

The SUCI workers, Hazarul Haque and Shirifa Khatoon, still hold that the girls had been sold off.

Anjuba from Bhagabangola, 235 km from Calcutta, was married to a Kashmiri youth, Abdul Majid, in May this year. The 16-year-old said Kashmiri grooms have to pay a large sum of money to the bride’s family. “That is why Abdul was looking for a bride elsewhere, where he would not have to pay any money.”

Two villagers, Azahar Sheikh and Kamruzzaman Sheikh, told her father Sattar Sheikh about Abdul. He agreed and the minor was married off on May 1. Two days later, she left for Kashmir.

Later, representatives of an NGO told Sattar his daughter was sold to the Kashmiri youth for Rs 21,000. Sattar went to the police, who arrested Azahar. He confessed to taking the money to find a bride for Abdul. A police team from Bhagabangola visited Kashmir with Azahar and brought her back.

“My husband is a nice person and has nothing to do with girl trafficking. My in-laws are much better off than us. After the manner in which I was forced to return with a police team, I will no longer be accepted by my husband,” she said.