Trafficked girl rescued after 17 months

A teenage girl who was abducted from Ghatail upazila in the district in 2015 was rescued on Sunday from the Benapole border in Jessore 17 months after her disappearance.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) rescued her with the help of Indian Border Security Force (BSF), Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB), local police and immigration police.

The Crime Prevention Company-3 of Rab-12 in Tangail revealed this at a press conference at its office here yesterday. 

Rab Commander Muhammad Mohiuddin Faruki produced the girl before the journalists, saying that she was trafficked to India after abduction by a gang of human traffickers on August 17 in 2015. Later, she was sold to a brothel in Delhi, Faruki said.

Faruki said the victim's parents filed a complaint with the elite force on September 29 after an anonymous caller from India on September 25 the same year demanded Tk 5 lakh for her release. The caller also said the girl was in India, he added.

The elite force then started investigation over the matter and arrested 11 members of the traffickers' ring from different parts of the country.

The arrestees gave confessional statements to a court under Section 164, Faruki said, adding that they abducted the girl, trafficked her to India and sold her to a Delhi brothel.

Rab sought Interpol's help to rescue the girl, he said.

Sensing the Indian police's preparation to rescue the girl, the traffickers left her in Indian territory near Benapole border on January 28.

Being informed, Rab members went to the border and rescued the girl on Sunday and took her to Tangail, said Faruki, also investigation officer of the case.