Guwahati, July 11: A 35-year-old woman from Assam, who was trafficked for a forced marriage, was rescued from Bhiwani district in Haryana on Saturday.

Arzu (name changed) was rescued from a village in Bhiwani district, which is located on the Haryana-Rajasthan interstate border.

The joint rescue operation was carried out by Haryana police, anti-trafficking NGO Shakti Vahini and Child Welfare Committee of Bhiwani.

The victim, who hails from South Salmara in lower Assam, was trafficked around one-and-a-half years ago by three persons on the pretext of giving her a job in Delhi and but later sold off as a bride in Haryana.

At the time of rescue, she was found to be six months pregnant.

Rishi Kant, a member of Shakti Vahini, said Arzu was not being able to tell much about herself as she can't speak any language other than her mother tongue - Bengali.

"From what we could understand, she has a three-year-old child in Assam who lives with her parents and she wants to go back to them. She also told us that she is carrying a child in her womb but was never taken for a medical check-up. She doesn't understand the local language properly," he said.

Kant said she was sold off to Jaipal in Haryana by the three persons for Rs 30,000. "Though she is a Muslim woman, she was forced to marry a Hindu man and her name was changed to Suman to hide her identity," he said.

"We received information from one of our well-wishers about her condition and accordingly we informed the superintendent of police, Bhiwani, and took help of Child Welfare Committee to conduct a raid and rescue the woman," he said.

Kant said they have also contacted South Salmara police and had been able to trace the family of the woman. "A police team from South Salmara is on its way to Delhi to take the victim back home," he said.

"After the rescue, the survivor was medically examined and is currently lodged at a shelter home in Delhi," Kant said. Haryana, with its skewed sex ratio, now has to increasingly import brides from poverty-stricken states such as Assam, Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha and there are well-organised rackets that are involved in this trafficking.

"They are exploited under conditions that amount to a modern form of slavery," Kant said.