Tourism town Cox’s Bazar aggravated with human trafficking, Yaba peddling, and Rohingya intrusion, where Awami League parliament member Abdur Rahman Bodi is the chief patron of the crimes.
Sources in the administration said, not only himself, 23 relatives of the MP of Cox’s Bazar-4 (Ukhia-Teknaf) constituency, including his three brothers, are also involved in the illegal activities.
Parliament member Bodi tops the home ministry’s list of 79 leading human traffickers of Cox’s Bazar. He is also mentioned by Narcotics Control Department as the chief patron of the yaba smugglers.
Bodi is also placed number 1 on the list of facilitators who help Rohingya people include in the voter list and get national identity card.
According to the office of the UN High commissioner for Refugees, human trafficking business worth around Tk 800 crore is run through the Bay of Bengal.
Department of Narcotics Control said yaba occupies half of the drug business worth about Tk 3000 crore in Bangladesh. Bodi’s constituency Teknaf is the only smuggling route of yaba from Myanmar.
A large amount of transaction is done through helping Rohingyas to intrude into Bangladesh, giving them shelter in Cox’s Bazar, and assisting them in obtaining passport providing them with national ID. No credible source, however, could confirm the amount of the black money transaction.
Bodi’s brother Mujibur Rahman is at the 8th position on the list of the people involved in providing the Rohingyas with NIDs, and he ranks 7 on the list of yaba traders.
The lawmaker’s brothers Shafiqul Islam, 23, and Abdur Shukkur, 38, are at the 4th and 2nd positions respectively on the yaba peddlers’ list after the top drug smuggler Bodi.
The other relatives of the lawmaker involved in human trafficking are Sayedur Rahman Nipu, 24, son of his sister Shamsunnahar, Hamid Hossain, 40, brother-in-law of his sister, Bodi’s uncle-in-law Zahir Uddin, and Aktar Kamal and Shahed Kamal, two of his brothers-in-law.
Asked about his top-ranking, Abdur Rahman Bodi told Prothom Alo, “It’s a BNP-Jamaat conspiracy against him because they know that they cannot defeat me in the election. And so, they hatched the conspiracy so that I am not given party nomination.”
Former MP and Teknaf upazila Awami League president Mohammad Ali Told Prothom Alo, “I am telling always that human trafficking and yaba smuggling are inter-linked. A parliament member is the mastermind of the crimes. Effective measure against the quarter can stop both yaba and human smuggling.”
Asked about why steps are not being taken against Bodi despite having so much data and information, state minister for home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said, “The parliament member was arrested beforehand also, but he was freed on bail. Necessary steps will be taken on receipt of further allegation.”