NGO workers arrested for kidnapping Ladakh children

Five members of a non-governmental organisation were arrested after they were charged with ?kidnapping? 28 Ladakh children from different flood and cloudburst relief camps, police said on Sunday.

Police said the children were taken away from the camps in Ladakh to Jammu after the flash floods without the consent of their parents by an NGO called Youth Movement for Peace.

“Five people have been arrested for kidnapping the children who had gone missing from Ladakh after the flash floods,” SS Sambiyal, the DSP of North Jammu, told reporters.

The NGO has been pressed with charges of illegal confinement while the administration has handed the children back to Ladakh Budhist Association so that they could be returned to their parents.

Ladakh Budhhist Association General secretary PT Kunzang said the NGO ?had not taken any consent of parents or the Deputy Commissioner.?

However, the NGO has denied the allegation.

Meenakshi, an official of the NGO, was quoted saying: ?I spoke with the parents today and all of them reaffirmed that they were not against us.?