Dozens of children rescued in raids in India: Officials

JAIPUR (AFP) - Indian officials have freed 51 children kept in "pathetic conditions" in the city of Jaipur amid suspicions they were held as part of a human trafficking racket, officials said on Thursday.

The state-funded Rajasthan Commission for Protection of Child Rights said 27 girls aged between seven and 17 years were among the children found on Tuesday in two homes.

Commission chief Deepak Kalra said officials raided the two premises, which claimed they were working as children's homes, following a tip-off from a New Delhi-based activist organisation.

"The children mostly from states in the northeast were brought here on the pretext of providing education by one Jacob John but they were confined to the homes here," the commission chief said.