More than 100 girls and young women have gone missing from Bihar’s Bharat–Nepal border belt in just six months, with emerging evidence linking the disappearances to organized international trafficking networks and online love trap (sexial grooming) recruitment tactics. A recent rescue at the Raxaul border of a 16‑year‑old Hindu girl, allegedly lured, exploited and pushed towards religious conversion before being taken towards Nepal in a burqa, has become a chilling emblem of the wider crisis.
Raxaul rescue exposes trafficking–conversion link
According to local reports from East Champaran, the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) anti‑human trafficking unit intercepted a man, a 16‑year‑old girl in a burqa and a minor boy near the customs office at the Raxaul border while they were attempting to cross into Nepal. The man was identified as Mohammad Azmullah Ali from West Champaran, while the girl was a Hindu minor who had been reported missing from Bettiah.
Investigations and counselling of the survivor revealed that the accused had befriended her via social media, trapped her in a romantic relationship and eloped with her from Bettiah on 13 November, taking her to Gurugram on the promise of marriage and a job. In Gurugram, he allegedly subjected her to repeated sexual exploitation, pressurized her to accept Islam, forced her to learn Islamic practices and later planned to move her to Nepal in a burqa, allegedly as part of a broader conversion‑linked trafficking plan incentivized by money.
Social media love trap (sexual grooming) on the Bihar–Nepal border
Parallel to the Raxaul case, human rights petitions have highlighted a disturbing pattern of social media–driven grooming targeting young Hindu women along the Bihar–Nepal frontier. A detailed complaint by human rights lawyer S.K. Jha describes how traffickers systematically target girls aged roughly 18–25 from remote regions, particularly in Nepal and North Bihar, using fake romantic profiles and promises of a better life across the border.
Once emotionally entangled, many victims are persuaded to cross into Bharat or move deeper into border districts, where some are forced into forced conversion, marriage and others are sold into red‑light areas or handed over to trafficking agents. In addition to romance scams, recruiters reportedly use fake job offers aimed at economically vulnerable Hindu girls, often arranging video calls with already‑trafficked women to build trust before selling new victims onward.
Over 100 girls missing in six months
Petitions before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Bihar State Human Rights Commission state that more than 100 women and girls have disappeared from Bharat–Nepal border areas of Bihar, especially around Motihari, in just the last six months. These disappearances are concentrated in police station areas such as Raxaul, Adapur, Ramgarhwa and Harpur, indicating specific trafficking corridors rather than isolated missing‑person cases.
In one widely cited incident, four Hindu girls from a single family in Chainpur, under Adapur police station, were traced and rescued after prompt intervention by local authorities, underlining both the scale of risk and the possibility of successful recovery when agencies act quickly. However, activists estimate that only about 5% of missing girls are ultimately rescued, with the vast majority remaining untraced and feared trafficked.
International trafficking routes: from border villages to Gulf and beyond
The petitions and local rights groups allege that powerful international trafficking syndicates are operating in and around Motihari and other border districts, using Bharat–Nepal crossings as staging points. According to these complaints, girls and women from the region are being sold within Bharat as well as trafficked to countries such as Nepal, China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia for large sums of money.
Anti‑trafficking organisations working in the area say victims are exploited for multiple criminal markets: surrogacy rackets, forced and illegal marriages, sexual exploitation, drug smuggling and even organ trade. Local NGO representatives also warn that some girls are coerced into carrying drugs across the border, further entangling them in criminal networks that make escape and legal redress more difficult.
Victim profile: minors, unmarried youth and married women
While the Raxaul case involves a 16‑year‑old minor, the broader pattern spans both unmarried young women and married women. Case records referenced in petitions include a married woman who disappeared from her maternal home in Ramgarhwa Bazaar on 6 June, whose in‑laws reside across the border in Nepal, as well as another case registered on 10 June concerning a woman from Ratanpur in Raxaul.
In addition, Nepal’s mountainous and economically distressed regions have become source areas where some families, under intense financial pressure, allegedly sell their daughters to intermediaries posing as labour contractors. These girls are then trafficked further for labour, sexual exploitation or forced marriage, with their cross‑border movement making investigation and repatriation particularly challenging.
Grooming methods: romance, jobs and family sale
Field inputs from NGOs and petitions outline three dominant recruitment methods currently in use.
- Social media romance scams: Traffickers approach girls online, invest time in building emotional dependence and then lure them across the border or to cities with promises of marriage, urban life and financial security.
- Fake job offers: Syndicates target financially weak families with promises of well‑paid employment in cities or abroad, using already‑trafficked girls on video calls to assure new victims and their parents.
- Direct purchase from families: In certain impoverished pockets, middlemen buy girls from families under the pretext of labour contracts, only to push them into exploitative networks.
The Raxaul conversion–trafficking case fits neatly into this pattern, where the initial hook was an online relationship and the bait was marriage and employment, followed by sexual exploitation and an attempted cross‑border transfer.
Weak enforcement and alleged administrative failure
NGO workers active along the border report that they routinely share tip‑offs on suspected trafficking, but lack authority to initiate direct legal proceedings, leaving them dependent on local police responses. They allege that many investigations stall at the level of minor facilitators, while the masterminds and financiers behind the trafficking rackets continue to operate with impunity.
In the Raxaul case, it was the coordinated action of the SSB’s anti‑human trafficking unit and local rescue partners that blocked the escape route to Nepal and prevented a possible disappearance into the international network. However, activists argue that such successful interceptions are the exception, not the rule, and that the current law‑enforcement approach has failed to deter organized gangs that have adapted to digital recruitment and cross‑border mobility.
Role of central agencies and Operation AAHT
Central security and railway agencies have also flagged Raxaul and adjoining areas as human‑trafficking hotspots, prompting heightened surveillance operations. Under the Railway Protection Force’s Operation AAHT (Action Against Human Trafficking), 929 victims, including 874 children, were rescued and 274 traffickers arrested across Bharat in 2024–25, reflecting the national scale of the crisis.
In May 2025, for instance, the RPF at Raxaul Railway Station, working with the Government Railway Police, SSB anti‑trafficking units and the NGO Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre, rescued four minor girls aged 13–17 who had been trafficked from Nepal on false promises of employment and assistance in locating a missing relative. This rescue, like the recent Jagran‑reported case, underscores how Raxaul functions both as an entry and exit node in the trafficking chain spanning Bharat and Nepal.
Human rights commissions step in
Recognizing the gravity of the situation, human rights lawyer S.K. Jha has filed separate petitions before the NHRC and the Bihar State Human Rights Commission seeking a high‑level probe into the disappearances and trafficking allegations along the Bihar–Nepal border. A similar petition described in other media reports suggests that national institutions, including courts, are being urged to monitor and direct anti‑trafficking measures in North Bihar’s border districts.
The petitions demand not only the tracing of missing girls but also dismantling of the international syndicates, stricter border surveillance, better coordination between Bharatiya and Nepali authorities and accountability for administrative lapses. Rights advocates warn that every delay in systemic action risks more girls being lost to a “criminal machinery running unchecked” along one of South Asia’s most porous and vulnerable borders.
