Man arrested in Narsingdi for human trafficking

Police yesterday in Narsingdi arrested Nuru Mia, 45, who is accused of trafficking dozens of youths to Malaysia through the Bay of Bengal.

The arrest was made following a case filed by Ahmed Ali, father of a trafficking victim, Mohammad Sohag, 16, who was repatriated from Malaysia this July, police said.

Sohag of Char Basania village in Narsingdi is one of several hundred boat people rescued by the Malaysian coastguard this May when Thailand began a crackdown on human traffickers following discovery of mass graves believed to be of Myanmar Rohingyas and Bangladeshis.

Ahmed Ali had lodged the case with Narsingdi Sadar Police Station mid-May as Nuru Mia had lured his son Sohag with a job in Malaysia in late February and took Tk 2.5 lakh from his family. But Ali could neither reach Sohag in Malaysia nor bring him back home.

"Sohag was beaten in the ship. Sohag told us this from the ship by phone and told us to pay money to Nuru Mia," Ahmed Ali told The Daily Star over the phone.

Meanwhile, Nuru Mia also filed a case last week with a Narsingdi court accusing Ahmed and Sohag of trafficking Nuru's nephew, said Apple Mahmud, head of Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) in Narsingdi.

"On that basis, we asked Ahmed Ali and Sohag to come to our office. As we interviewed them and saw related documents, we asked Nuru Mia to come to our office and arrested him when he came," he told The Daily Star over the phone.

He said they suspect Nuru to be a member of an international human trafficking network.

According to Apple Mahmud, in the last one month PBI received 10 cases related to human trafficking and arrested five alleged human traffickers in Narsingdi.

Media reports suggest Narsingdi, Narayanganj, Sirajganj and Cox's Bazar are the four districts from where a large number of youths were trafficked to Malaysia through the sea.

According to the police headquarters, 573 alleged traffickers were arrested in connection with 442 human trafficking cases between January and June this year. However, only three were convicted.