4 human traffickers including gang leader arrested
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have arrested four members of a human trafficking gang, including its mastermind, during drives in Dhaka and Cumilla on Monday.
The arrestees are gang leader Tofail Ahmed, his associates Aktar Hossian, Anisur Rahman and Md Rasel. The elite force members also seized 16 passports, three chequebooks, four stamps, five mobile phones and four BMET cards from their possession.
In a press conference Monday (26 September), RAB-3 Commander Lt Col Arif Mohiuddin Ahmed said the gang used to send people to different countries luring them with lucrative overseas jobs and realise Tk4-8 lakh from them. But the gang sent people abroad on tourist visas.
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"The gang also used to hold the job seekers captive in a secret place, seize their passports and other valuables and torture them. The captive people had to pay an additional amount of around Tk60,000 to get their passport back to return home," said the RAB official.
He said the gang does not have any license for operating travel agency or recruiting agency.
"They were doing human trafficking business under the name of 'City Express Travel Agency' only with trade license from city corporation," he added.
