Bengaluru: Over 500 children have been resued by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) of South Western Railway are from Bengaluru division over the past year. This makes the Bengaluru division the worst affected in terms of child trafficking in the entire South Western Railways region.

Addressing presspersons on the occasion of International Missing Children’s Day on Saturday, May, 25 RPF officials said they have decided to intensify Operation Nanhe Farishte, a special drive to rescue trafficked children.

It is gathered that in 2018, the RPF had rescued as many as 1,299 children (1,125 boys and 174 girls), of which 523 (458 boys and 65 girls) are from Bengaluru division. Hubballi division was the second-worst affected, where 490 children (407 boys and 83 girls) were rescued. In Mysuru, 286 children (260 boys, 26 girls) were rescued in 2018, informed sources.

In 2019, between January and May 21, 257 children (224 boys and 33 girls) were rescued from South Western Railways limits. Of them, 206 children, including 183 boys and 23 girls, are from Karnataka, 13 children— 12 boys and one girl – are from Bihar and nine are from Andhra Pradesh.