Operation Muskaan: 22 minor girls reunited with kin in twenty days in MP's Balaghat

Bhopal: A total of 22 minor girls have been reunited with their families in tribal-dominated Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh in the last 20 days under 'Operation Muskaan', an initiative to trace missing children, a senior police official said on Saturday.

Balaghat is a district affected by Left Wing Extremism, the official pointed out.

"We are running this special drive to ensure missing girls don't fall prey to trafficking and are not led astray by Maoists who are facing severe manpower crunch across the nation. We formed special teams at police station level and worked with other states to trace the missing minor girls," Balaghat Superintendent of Police Nagendra Singh told PTI over phone.

With coordinated efforts, deployment of modern technology and information networks as well as continuous hard work in challenging conditions, smiles have been restored on the faces of many families, Singh asserted.

As part of Operation Muskaan, 22 minor girls were traced and reunited with their families by Balaghat police in the past 20 days, he said.

This includes the recovery of a 17-year-old girl from Idukki in Kerala by Bharveli police, a statement from the force said, adding she was reunited with her family on Saturday.

In the past seven days, the Lalbarra police recovered two minor girls from Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, the Kirnapur police traced a minor girl from Indore, the Changotola police traced a missing person from Nagour in neighbouring Maharashtra and Kotwali police reunited a child after tracing her in Vidisha, the statement said.

"Balaghat police will continue the process of recovering missing children and reuniting them with their families under Operation Muskaan," Singh added.