Imphal, Oct. 10: Alarmed by reports of trafficking of girls from Manipur, the Okram Ibobi Singh government has set up district anti-trafficking cells at police stations to check the trend.

The cells, set up in all the nine districts, are being headed by deputy superintendents of police and will function under the supervision of inspectors-general of police.

Each cell comprises a woman police officer and a sub-inspector who will be responsible for intelligence gathering and checking movement of traffickers.

A cell will also responsible for checking vehicles, particularly along the Imphal-Dimapur and Imphal-Jiribam highways and at Imphal airport.

Announcing this in the Assembly today, chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh said all possible measures were being taken to check trafficking of women and children.

The step was taken in the wake of reports of a large number of girls being taken out of Manipur to various destinations, including Singapore and Malaysia.

A Singapore-based NGO, in cahoots with some local residents, took four tribal girls from Tamenglong district to the country in January this year and then shifted them to Malaysia.

The lure was the false promise of jobs. The girls fled a night club in Kuala Lumpur where they were forced to work. They are on their way to Manipur.

Police rescued 17 girls from Ukhrul, Churachandpur and Tamenglong districts at Sekmai in Imphal West district on September 30 when they were about to be trafficked to Chennai by Apam Khambram of Ukhrul. Khambram told the police that she was taking the girls to Chennai after promising them jobs.

Dimapur police detected 17 girls and a boy from Manipur, who were sent by an agent in Manipur to Chennai on September 16. The agents promised them jobs in Chennai. The girls were sent back to Manipur the next day.

Twenty-two Manipuri children, two of them girls, were rescued by Tamil Nadu police on August 16 from an illegal orphanage in Chennai and brought back to the state.

“These girls and their parents were innocent. They were promised jobs and free education. They went willingly,” Ibobi Singh said. Two cases had been registered in Imphal West and Tamenglong districts and four jailed, he said.