7 boys rescued from camel jockey ring

The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) rescued seven boys from a suspected human traffickers' den in Kakrail yesterday after the boys were amassed there allegedly for sale as camel jockeys to the Middle East. PHOTO: STAR

The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday rescued seven boys brought to the capital from Comilla allegedly for trafficking to the Middle East as camel jockey.

The Rab also arrested three alleged child traffickers -- Sarwar Hossain Sumon, the ringleader; Zahirul Alam and Abdul Jalil -- in this connection.

A Rab team rescued the boys and made the arrests from a house at Kakrail in a four- hour raid. It also seized a large number of passports, photographs of children and women, seals of government officials, money-detecting machine and fake documents for going aboard.

The rescued boys were identified as Zakaria Ahmed, Ripon Ahmed, Altaf Hossain, Kashem Ahmed, Jamil Ahmed, Mohammad Nazmul, and Zakir Hossian. They were handed over to Ramna police for safe custody.

The children were picked up from Bianibazar, Comilla. No-one of them however knows the others.

The Rab team headed by Sergeant Mohammad Monirul Haq raided at the fourth floor-flat from 1:30am.

"My parents allowed me to come with them (now arrestees) for going to London for study," Zakaria told the journalists at Ramna Police Station.

"We came to know about the ill motive of the racket two days ago and started investigation into it," said Sergeant Mosiur Rahman, who also took part in the raid.

The Rab team recovered several old dresses of kids and women inside the house that suggested the racket had trafficked children and women in the past.

"The children rescued this time were probably being taken to Middle-East to be used as camel jockey," said Mahbubur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Ramna Police Station.

Owner of the house Nazrul Islam said they (racket) hired the flat six months ago. "They used to bring boys at the flat, who were not found later," he added.

Nazrul also said that asked about the boys, the tenants used to say they came for various purposes like taking examinations.

Ringleader Sumon told journalists at Ramna Police Station the boys were being sent to London to their relatives. "Their parents handed them over to us. This was for the first I was to send children abroad."

The arrestees were produced before the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, which put them on a 10-day police remand.