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 | Thursday, April 20, 2000, updated at 10:09(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Kidnapping Ring BustedA kidnapping ring which abducted 84 women and children and forced them to provide sexual services has been destroyed, the Ministry of Public Security confirmed April 19.A police investigation revealed that since 1997, Wang Heqiao, a female farmer in Zunyi County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, has collaborated with a dozen of her family members in abducting 84 women in Zunyi County. Of those, 51 were single and more than 30 were under the age of 17. The women were kidnapped and sold as prostitutes to eight beauty salons in Zhangzhou City, in east China's Fujian Province. Saying they were bringing the group to the area to work, the kidnappers provided all traveling fees between Zunyi and Zhangzhou for the 84 women, but stripped them of their identification cards and all personal belongings after reaching the destination. Those who refused to provide sexual services were starved and beaten. So far, police have rescued all 84 victims, seized nine kidnappers and five salon owners. Since April 1, Chinese police have launched a nationwide hunt for women and children traffickers, armed with sophisticated means including DNA-testing kits, and digital and networking systems. The abducted children and their parents will all have blood samples taken for DNA testing to verify the relationships. On April 7, Zeng Chao, a eight-month-old child rescued by Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, became the first child identified by DNA-testing since Beijing police authorities began its hunt for people traffickers. Jia Chunwang, minister of public security, said at a recent national tele-conference that the anti-abduction drive is one his ministry's priorities this year. On April 10, a 31-year-old Chinese Mongolian policeman was killed while searching for kidnapped women in a village in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The policeman, Sainbair, and his two colleagues were investigating in the village when Han Yonglai, a 32-year-old farmer who bought an abducted woman from southwest China's Sichuan Province, fatally attacked him with a knife. Sainbair died en route to the hospital. He is the first police officer to be killed in the line of duty since the nationwide hunt for traffickers of women and children began
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