Guwahati, Aug 12 (IANS): Assam Police, with the help of their Sikkim counterparts, rescued 13 more trafficked children, including eight girls, from the Himalayan state, police said on Wednesday.

The Assam Police, with the help of the Sikkim Police, had, two weeks ago, rescued 40 children, including 16 girls, and two adults trafficked earlier, from Sikkim and brought them back home.

Police said that all the 55 children and women were trafficked to Sikkim on different occasions long back and illegally engaged in domestic and other works.

"The kingpin of the human trafficking racket Krishna Yogi was also been arrested. The victims were lured with better-paying employment opportunities. There are reports that many other children and women from Assam were also trafficked to Sikkim. Efforts are on to rescue the remaining kids and women," a senior Assam Police official said.

According to the police, all the 55 children and women hail from the economically backward Chirang district of Assam's Bodoland Territorial Region along the India-Bhutan border.

Police said that the human traffickers have targeted Assam's economically backward sections, the worst-hit by the Covid pandemic induced situation and economic crisis.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the rescued children, on a case-by-case basis, would first be handed over to the Child Welfare Committee who would decide whether they must be sent to institutional custody, shelter homes, or handed back to their parents.