Two Indians held in Nepal for bid to kidnap schoolgirl

KATHMANDU - Two Indian men have been arrested in western Nepal for allegedly trying to kidnap a schoolgirl, police said.

Molazim Mian, 38, and Mohammad Mahim, 30, both residents of Motihari district in eastern India’s Bihar state, were arrested in Syangja district Thursday, police said.

The two men, who were running a small business in Syangja’s Putalibazar area, tried to abduct Manisha Kunwar, a 10-year-old schoolgirl while she was on her way to school, police said.

However, the fourth grader was rescued by teachers of her Roshni Boarding School who also caught the two men and handed them over to police.

A sharp rise in child abductions in Nepal last year has contributed to growing public anger.

When a police team went to search the room where the two men stayed, they came under a hail of bricks and stones. Inspector in charge, Resham Bahadur Shrestha, was injured, police said.

In the past, there have been several incidents of villagers lynching people, sometimes simply on the suspicion they were part of a child-lifting gang.