Human trafficking gang network ‘from India to Middle East’

The persons involved in sexual abuse of a Bangladeshi girl in India are members of an international human trafficking gang. The gang's network is spread across several countries of the Middle East, India and Bangladesh.

Police found that the Bangladeshi youth named Rifadul Islam Hridoy alias Tiktok Hridoy, 26, who was arrested in the incident in Bengaluru, India, is one of the linchpins of the gang.

Md Shahidullah, deputy commissioner of Tejgaon division police, disclosed this at a press conference held at his office on Saturday evening.

He said Tiktok Hridoy formed the gang in association with some criminals from Southeastern districts of Bangladesh and some Indian states.

The gang ‘targets’ distracted students of schools and colleges.

The police officer said the human traffickers opened a Facebook group to lure girls.

Tiktok Hridoy is an admin of that group. They used to lure young girls by creating Tiktok videos. The group organised a ‘pool party’ at a resort in Dhaka’s outskirts at the end of last year where around 700-800 young girls and boys joined. Tiktok Hridoy led the party.

Shahidullah said some members of the group allure girls of providing jobs in India’s supermarkets, super shops and beauty parlors at a handsome salary. The gang is based in India’s Bengaluru.

The human trafficking gang has an understanding with some hotels in India where they send the trafficked girls, Shahidullah added.

They would record obscene videos of the girls under duress and threaten to send the videos to their families if they try to flee.

A video of torturing a Bangladeshi girl recently went viral on social media in India and Bangladesh.

Assam police shared clips from the video circulating on social media to trace the accused and Bengaluru city police arrested six people involved with the incident.

Bangladesh police identified TikTok Hridoy of Maghbazar area as one of the perpetrators.

The rape victim’s father later filed a case with Hatirjheel police station under human trafficking and pornography act on Thursday night.

The girl’s father, who sells roadside sherbat vendor in Dhaka, said Tiktok Hridoy took his daughter to India on the pretext of sending her to the Middle East around a year ago.

Shahidullah said they are trying to bring back the criminals through National Central Bureau (NCB) of police headquarters.