10 Birhor children go missing in Koderma, SIT formed to trace them

Koderma: Police on Friday formed a special investigation team (SIT) after formally lodging a case to trace 10 Birhor children, aged between six and 12, who had gone missing on Feb 1.

All kids hailed from the Gadiyai Birhor hamlet, which is home to around 50 families, under the Jainagar police station limits.

Police also visited the hamlet on Friday to take stock of the situation.Notably, Birhors are a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) and among Jharkhand’s most vulnerable population.According to officials, the children had gone with their families to attend a feast in Parsabad, approximately 3km away from their settlement, on Feb 1.

While the adults returned home following the event, the children did not. Initially, the families believed the youngsters might have stayed back with relatives or were playing nearby, but as days passed, panic gripped the hamlet after there were no signs of the children.After a couple of days, when Rajendra Prasad Yadav, the head of Berogai panchayat, learnt about the case from their parents, who approached him, he, in turn, alerted the local block development office and the police.

However, only on Friday, the distraught parents officially filed a complaint with the police station, pleading for the safe rescue of their children.Of the 10 missing kids, nine are identified as 7-year-old Nisha Kumari and 5-year-old Ramesh Kumar, both children of Rajesh Birhor; 8-year-old Sajni Birhor, daughter of Kela Birhor; Birju, Mithun, Shivani, and Kalpana, all children of Dhanku Birhor; 8-year-old Rekha Birhor, daughter of Suresh Birhor; and 6-year-old Anisha Birhor, daughter of Budhan Birhor.Koderma SP Anudeep Singh said a high-level special investigation team has been formed to track the children.Local zila parishad member Kedarnath Yadav called for immediate and aggressive action, noting that recent incidents of child disappearances across Jharkhand heightened the sense of “fear” and urgency.Talking to TOI, DSP Rati Bhan Singh said, “Several teams have been formed on the instructions of the SP. We have begun a probe and will recover them soon.”