Bangladeshi-Rohingya collaboration in trafficking, 3 held

Staff Reporter :
About 22 young men and women of Narayanganj’s Araihajar upazila decided to go to Malaysia with the hope of changing their fate and better life.

Later they were taken to Myanmar by trawler from Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar.

The gang tortured them and demanded ransom there.

Nineteen youths were detained by the Myanmar Coast Guard while being smuggled from Myanmar in a trawler.

The remaining three youths reached Malaysia illegally.

But the young victim, Zahirul Islam, died even after reaching the Malaysia due to the brutal torture of the traffickers.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) also said that the remaining two youths now are in Malaysia illegally.

The elite force RAB arrested mastermind Ismail and his two accomplices on charge of demanding ransom and the brutal death of one due to torture in captivity on Friday.

Others accused have been identified as associates Jasim (35) and Md. Elahi (50).

They were arrested during separate raids in Narayanganj and Narsingdi areas.

Commander Khandaker Al Moin, Director of RAB’s Legal and Media Wing, gave this information in a press conference organized at RAB Media Center in the capital’s Karwan Bazar on Saturday.

Based on the information obtained from the interrogation of the arrested, Commander Moin said, the arrested Ismail met Rashidul and Jamal, citizens of Arakan (Rohingya) in Myanmar during his stay in Malaysia from 2001-2005 and developed a friendship.

Later, Ismail returned to the country and formed an international human trafficking ring of 10-12 people in collaboration with Rashidul and Jamal, citizens of Arakan in Myanmar and built a strong network of the human trafficking ring in Bangladesh with the collaboration of local agents, he said.