SASARAM, Nov. 28 -- Rohtas police rescued 17 minor girls during a raid in a red-light area at Bardihan village under Nasriganj police station of the district on Wednesday night. Three orchestra operators, including two women, were also arrested. SP Rohtas, Raushan Kumar said the rescued girls, belonging to Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, were handed over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) at Sasaram. Authorities in the states concerned were informed about the rescued children. Following an intelligence input that large number of teenage girls were being brought at Bardihan red-light area from outside the state on the pretext of providing them work in the orchestra, and forced into immoral activities, a police team led by Bikramganj ASP Saket Kumar with a DSP rank officer, forces from five police stations and female cops, raided the place. Orchestra operators Mamta Vishwakarma and Gita Kunwar of Bardihan and Raman Kumar Paswan alias Munna of Ballia village in Rajpur police station area, were arrested from the place. Altogether 17 minor girls were rescued from their clutches. Case was registered against 11 orchestra operators and 15-20 of their associates by women police station house officer Anshu Mala of Nasriganj police station, the SP said. The orchestra operators revealed that they lured minor girls from MP, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and other states under the pretext of providing them work in orchestras and forced them into immoral activities. Police were investigating the criminal antecedents of the arrested and raids were on to arrest the other five orchestra operators and their associates, the SP said. The rescued teenagers had been sent to a children's home at Mohania in adjacent Kaimur district and the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights was being informed about the well-organised racket with request to take steps to check the inhuman trade, CWC member Dadan Pandey said. In March, 47 minor tribal children had been rescued....