Int'l trafficking gang nabbed, four girls rescued

The Rapid Action Battalion has brought to light an international human trafficking gang that traded a total of 729 people abroad last year, reports UNB.

On Sunday, they arrested six members of the gang from Dhaka and Narayanganj, and rescued four young girls from their custody who were set to be trafficked abroad.

Squadron leader Md Rezaul Haque, commanding officer of RAB-11, revealed the information at a press conference at Siddhirganj in Narayanganj.

He said law enforcers conducted drives at Shah Chandrapuri Restaurant in Rupganj Upazila and in Goran of Dhaka’s Khilgaon early Sunday, and arrested the six traffickers.

Seventy passports, photocopies of 200 passports, 50 air-tickets, photocopies of 50 visas, a CPU, a computer monitor, a microbus and Tk 158,000 were seized from their possession, Rezaul said.

In primary interrogation, they admitted that they are active members of the organised international human trafficking gang.

According to information gleaned from them, they traffic young girls, aged 15 to 25, with false promises of high salaries abroad.

A huge number of agents, brokers, owners of foreign dance bars, travel agencies and dishonest people play their roles at different levels of the trafficking cycle.

The arrestees disclosed how they select a girl at initial level and influence her for going abroad.

Generally, the agents target garment workers from lower-class broken families. They collect photos of the targets and send them to the owners of foreign bars.

In the next stage, the bar owners or their representatives contact the girl and meet her at a restaurant or hotel in Dhaka for final selection. Sometimes, they meet in luxury car in the name of ‘long drive’.

After selecting the target, the gang prepares her passport with help of passport brokers.

Then, they send the girl abroad within a short period after making necessary arrangements with the help of travel agencies.

When the girl reaches her destination, some members of the gang receive her and keep her confined in a hotel or bar.

The girl there is forced to engage in anti-social activities. If she does not agree to comply with their demands, they intoxicate her.

They can be forced to work as call girls, or lured into prostitution.

However, members of RAB-11 finally managed to arrest the gang members after monitoring their activities for a long period, said Rezaul.

The arrestees were Anik Hossain, 31, from Mymensingh; Monir Hossain alias Shohag, 30, from Noakhali’s Chatkhil upazila; Akter Hossain, 40, of Narayanganj; Aftaul Islam alias Parvez, 37, of Chandpur’s Kachua; Abdul Hannan, 52 of Cumilla’s Chandina; and Md Akash, 29, of Madaripur Sadar Upazila.