Cops arrest three human traffickers

Detectives in separate drives arrested three alleged human traffickers and rescued 18 fortune seekers in the capital's Ashkona and Fakirapool areas on Sunday.

The people rescued from a hotel at Ashkona in airport area hailed from different parts of the country and were supposed to be flown to Palau, an island country in the western Pacific Ocean.

Agents of a Bangladesh-based trafficking gang were supposed to send them to Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia on waterways from Palau, the detectives claimed.

The traffickers had lured them with highly paid jobs in Palau and took Tk 7 lakh from each, said Shaikh Nazmul Alam, DB deputy commissioner (North) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

The agency was deferring flight schedules although each of the victims paid the money beforehand.

GLC Private Limited took the 18 fortune seekers to Di Rafaz Hotel in Ashkona with a promise to arrange flights for five of them on Sunday morning. As no-one was taken to the airport till the afternoon, one of them called the Detective Branch (DB) of police.

On information, a DB team raided the hotel, rescued the fortune seekers and arrested two traffickers, said Nazmul Alam.

Arrestees Golam Rabbani and Shahadat Hossain were the agents of GLC Private Limited, Nazmul told a press conference at the DMP media centre yesterday.

GLC Managing Director Mahamudur Rahman, Manager Babul Hossain and cashier Mahfuzur Rahman had escaped sensing police presence during the drive, he added.

The detectives claimed the gang used to send fortune seekers to Palau to make them captive for 15 to 20 days there and their local agents used to traffic them to other countries later.

One of the victims filed a case with Dakkhin Khan police. The detectives said they were trying to arrest the other traffickers.

In another drive, another DB team arrested alleged trafficker Shafiqul Islam in Fakirapool area.

Shafiqul, who sent one Abdur Rab to Malaysia around a month ago, had been demanding Tk 2.6 lakh from his family keeping him captive there by his local agents, detectives said.

The family paid Tk 50,000 for his release, but he demanded more.