Siliguri, Feb. 19: About five years ago, 28 young men from Bajbindol village in the Bindol gram panchayat area, 25km from Raiganj in North Dinajpur, were lured away to Delhi with the promise of jobs. Each returned a few months later, minus a kidney.

Two of the youths, aged between 18 and 21 at that time, have since died from complications arising from the surgeries. A trafficker named Rajjak was arrested but later released on bail.

The incident, which was referred to at an anti-trafficking consultation held here today, could be linked to the Amit Kumar-led kidney scam because the day he was arrested in Nepal, Rajjak and his wife went underground, said Kaushik Chaudhury, the project co-ordinator of the Raiganj-based Shripur Mohila-o-khadi Unnayan Samiti.

The samiti has been spearheading various social movements, including anti-trafficking drives, for the past 15 years. Along with Hill Social Welfare Society, Kalimpong, the samiti was one of the co-organisers of today’s consultation.

The meet was attended by 41 organisations from the six north Bengal districts.

“None of the 28 young men knew what would happen to them. They were kept in separate quarters, drugged one by one and taken to an operation theatre where a kidney was removed,” Chaudhury said.

“The youths were then told that they were not physically fit for the job and sent back. Each was given Rs 10,000 as compensation,” he added.

Cases of trafficking, with girls and children as targets, have also become frequent, said the NGOs. “On June 21 last year, as many as 22 girls were rescued with police help from the outskirts of their village in Sahidpur just as they were about to be transported to major cities through Dalkhola and Kishanganj,” said Jaba Bhattacharjee, the samiti’s secretary.

The rising number of trafficking cases in the region had prompted a national seminar in Patna in September where a Beti Bachao Andolan was launched.

“Today’s consultation is a follow-up to that meeting as the six districts of north Bengal are highly prone to the unlawful movement of human beings,” Bhattacharjee said.

The government has suggested ways of saving the girl child. They include awareness drives, identifying trafficking agents at the local level and catching them red-handed, assisting distressed young girls so that they do not fall prey to traffickers, and changing attitudes towards girls, said Arun Singh of Bhumika, a Patna-based NGO, which is at the helm of the drive.

Today’s consultation decided on compilation of consolidated data on the status of trafficking in north Bengal districts, where each participating NGO was given a set format for inputs.

“This is required as there is no concrete data anywhere, mainly because incidents of trafficking are usually registered with the police as kidnapping cases or missing person’s diary. The compilation would be published by May/June,” Singh said.

Current NGO initiatives were also reviewed, and a recommendation was adopted to include trafficking and gender issues in all their programmes.

Another consultation will be held in Calcutta on March 27, in which organisations from all over the state will take part.