Patna, Aug 4 (IANS): Ten of the 24 girl students of a government residential school in Bihar, who went missing five years ago, were pushed into flesh trade, police said Saturday.

Shivdeep W. Lande, the Araria district superintendent of police, said a police team had found that 10 of the 24 missing students of the Kasturba Gandhi Residential School in Simraha had been pushed into flesh trade.

"I was shocked to learn that 10 of these girls were among the 25 rescued from a red light area in Forbesganj near the Indo-Nepal border in February," Lande said.

He had constituted a four-member police team to trace the missing students.

Lande told IANS that police would not spare those involved in pushing these students into flesh trade.

In 2010, the police rescued four students of the same school from a red light area in Forbesganj and handed them over to their parents.

Lande said the role of an NGO, Apne Aap, which was running the school, was under the scanner.

"It is not possible that the NGO did not have any knowledge about the missing girls. How can 24 girls go missing without its knowledge?" he said.

Police in Araria, about 350 km from here, said 44 persons were arrested during the raid in the red light area in February and some girl students were rescued.

They were sent to shelter homes.

Lande said he feared that the remaining students might also have been pushed into flesh trade.

Surprisingly, the district programme officer was first informed about the missing students June 8.

Even last Monday, seven students were found missing when the district child welfare committee chairwoman Rita Ghosh visited the school.

Some of the students have not been attending the school since March.

Police officials in Araria, an impoverished and backward region of Bihar, said human trafficking was rampant in the district and neighbouring districts along India-Nepal border.