Kolkata: Sixteen girls, 10 of them minors, who had gone missing from their homes in various parts of the state, were rescued from red-light areas in Mumbai and Pune in a joint raid carried out by Mumbai Police and West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

According to official sources, nine of the girls are from South 24-Parganas, three from Murshidabad, one each from North 24-Parganas, Burdwan and Howrah, while one was from Orissa.

The girls had gone missing from their homes over the last couple of years. Mostly from underprivileged families, they were lured by offers of lucrative jobs in big cities. "We rescued these girls from different redlight areas with active support of local police," said inspector general (II) of CID Soumen Mitra. CID got some specific tip-off after recent interrogation of a trafficker.

A number of trafficking rackets are active in North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Murshidabad, Burdwan

and Howrah. The racketeers take the girls often with the consent of their parents, purportedly to give them jobs to Delhi, Mumbai and Pune and sell them at a premium to brothels.

Despite a number of campaigns by the government and NGOs, the trafficking of girls from the state continues unabated. Urged by the Centre, anti-trafficking cells under the CID had been formed by the state in 2007.