Crime
Targeted awareness, outreach efforts 'essential' to prevent human trafficking, says Blinken
The US has said human trafficking is a crime globally that deprives millions of people of their dignity and freedom.
"To properly tackle this crime, it will take a commitment from each of us to end human trafficking. Targeted awareness and outreach efforts are essential," said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
An estimated 27.6 million are now victims of trafficking worldwide.
Read more: UN Special Rapporteur will assess rights violation in trafficking during official visit to Bangladesh
This month is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, a time for people, organisations, communities, and federal organisations to join in "our efforts to combat all forms of human trafficking, including sex trafficking and forced labour," he said.
The US Agency for International Development's (USAID) Fight Slavery and Trafficking in Persons Project organised an event last week to bring together government and civil society stakeholders to incorporate feedback from regional workshops into the revised National Plan of Action.
Country's law, order situation must be improved regularly: Deputy Speaker
Deputy Speaker Shamsul Haque Tuku on Thursday said the law and order situation of the country should be improved continuously.
"The law and order situation in the country is good but it must be constantly improved," he said.
The deputy speaker was speaking as the chief guest at a meeting of the Santhia Upazila administration in Pabna, the Parliament Secretariat said in a statement.
Tuku, also former state minister for home affairs, said the administration and the law enforcement agencies should always be vigilant to build a society free from militancy, drugs and smoking.
The Deputy Speaker said all the elected representatives, politicians, government officials and employees should work together to ensure a place for the country in the rank of the developed ones.
Read more: Law enforcers ready to face any situation over Christmas: IGP
He said the development journey of Bangladesh accelerated after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina started steering the country (towards progress). "The PM opened another new horizon for Bangladesh by launching metro rail on Wednesday."
With the commencement of the metro rail service, the commuters would now be able to avail of modern, safe and comfortable transport services and get relief from nagging traffic jams and save their valuable time, Tuku said.
Mastermind behind porn ring among 6 held for 'embezzling Tk30 crore through livestreaming'
The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said they arrested six members of a ring, including the mastermind, for embezzling Tk30 crore through livestreaming porn videos on mobile apps.
Abu Musa Imran Ahmed Sunny and his accomplices Abu Shama, Fatima Akhter, Shayla Akhter, Shah Arman and Md Salim were arrested from various parts of the country on Wednesday, CTTC said Thursday.
Also, phones, SIM cards, laptops, debit-credit cards, and cheque books were seized from their possession.
Read: 150 Jamaat-Shibir men sued, 6 held over attack on police in Rajshahi
The Cybercrime Investigation Division of CTTC found that the ring was broadcasting pornography live through the mobile app Dream Live of the international video livestreaming platform Top Class Entertainment.
Sunny maintained the video livestreaming site through over 120 agencies across the country.
The gang swindled different people out of a large chunk of money through illegal virtual diamond coins and game coins.
CTTC said they found that Sunny made over Tk30 crore of illegal transactions through his bank accounts and mobile financial services in the last three months.
Read: Launch passenger stabbed dead after brawl in Chandpur: 8 held
"A case was filed against Sunny and his accomplices at Raman Police Station. The accused confessed to siphoning off money to other countries through broadcasting illegal porn videos," thdy added.
Mother kills children in Dhaka's Hazaribagh before committing suicide
A woman in Dhaka's Hazaribagh committed suicide Thursday after killing her two children, police said.
The bodies of the woman and her children were found at a rented house in the Gadighar area of Rayer Bazar of Hazaribagh around 10pm, Officer-In-charge (OC) of Hazaribagh Police Station Saidul Haque Bhuiyan said.
"We're suspecting that a domestic dispute led to the killing and the suicide. We're currently trying to find out the identities of the deceased and the cause of the death of the children," the OC added.
Read: Ninth-grader ‘kills self’ in Barishal
Three held for 'killing' mother, son in Sherpur
Police said they detained three people after recovering the bodies of a woman and her son from the septic tank of a rented house in Sherpur on Thursday.
The deceased were identified as 35-year-old nurse Roksana Begum and her 11-year-old son Md Rafid. Police detained Masek Ali, a "drug addict" auto-rickshaw driver, his mother, and another person over the incident.
According to police, Masek used to live with Roksana and Rafid at a rented house in the Nabinagar Panaitapara area of Sherpur town.
Roksana's elder sister Sufia Begum filed a general diary (GD) at Sherpur Sadar Police Station on Wednesday after Roksana and Rafid had gone missing on December 4.
Read: Young girl ‘gang raped’ in Cumilla: 5 held
"We found Masek's involvement in the killing after questioning him. Later, police conducted a search of his house and found the bodies inside the septic tank. We've detained Masek, his mother and another person in connection with the killing."
"We think a dispute between Masek and Roksana over money for buying drugs led to the killing," Md Hannan Mia, additional superintendent of police of Sherpur Circle, said.
Bashir Ahmed Badal, officer-in-charge (OC) of Sherpur Sadar Police Station, said the bodies have been sent to the Sherpur Zila Hospital morgue for autopsies. "Police will file a case over the killing."
Law enforcers have made progress in Fardin murder probe: Rab
Law enforcement agencies that are probing Buet student Fardin Noor murder case have made progress, Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of Rab’s legal and media wing, said today.
The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) official said this while briefing the media on Monday at its media office in Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar.
“Rab along with other law enforcement agencies are working to find out the motive behind the murder, identify the culprits, and bring them to justice,” he said.
Read: Fardin murder: Bushra lands in jail after remand
Rab personnel have spoken to those who were at the locations where Fardin went before the murder, the Rab commander added. Rab has also collected footage.
Fardin was a 3rd year student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s civil engineering department and a resident of Qutubpur area in Narayanganj's Fatullah.
Police recovered Fardin’s body from the Shitalakhkhya river, behind a cotton mill at Siddhirganj, on November 7, three days after he went missing.
Read: Fardin wasn’t murdered in Narayanganj’s Chanpara, police say
Sheikh Farhad, a physician at Narayanganj General Hospital where the autopsy was done, said there were several injury marks on Fardin’s head and body.
Kazi Nuruddin Rana, Fardin’s father, filed a case in connection with his son’s killing with Rampura Police Station on the same day and the case was later transferred to Detective Branch (DB) Police.
DB arrests 6 impersonators
The Detective Branch (DB) of police have arrested six people, who impersonated DB and members of different law enforcement agencies to commit robbery, in the capital.
The arrestees— Sohag Majhi ,28, Delwar ,26, Zainal Hossain,28, Sohail ,27, Johnny ,32 and Aziz ,57--were apprehended from Dhaka's Savar and Jatrabari and Patuakhali on Friday night.
Harun-or-Rashid, additional commissioner of Detective Branch (DB) of DMP disclosed the matter in a press conference organised at DMP's media center at Minto Road in the capital on Saturday afternoon.
The law enforcers also recovered Tk 20 lakhs, a microbus and a motorcycle from their possession.
Earlier on Nov 13, an organized gang of robbers posing as Detective Branch officials made away with Tk 85 lakh at South Keraniganj on the outskirts of the capital in broad daylight, said the DB officer.
Read: Escape of militants from court premises: CTTC arrests 1
Later, a case was filed at South Keraniganj police station following a complaint lodged by victim Keramot Ali.
Following the case, a team of DB conducted a drive in Savar's Kaundia area first and arrested 4 people and later two more from Jatrabari and Patuakhali, added DB chief.
Bagerhat: 2 get life in prison for fourth-grader murder
A Bagerhat court on Thursday sentenced two men to life imprisonment for the 2019 murder of a four-grader.
Senior Judge Md Rabiul Islam of Bagerhat District and Sessions Judge Court gave the order in the presence of the convicts.
The lifers are Kawsar Sheikh, 53, and Imdadul Shikder, 23, from Kartik Dia village of Sadar upazila.
The court cleared another accused Abul Kalam Azad, son of lifer Kawsar, from charges during the hearing.
Read: Rangpur: 5 get life in prison for 2015 rape, murder of teen
According to the case complaint, on August 23, 2019, Kalyan Paul, son of trader Kamal Paul from Kartik Dia, was playing near his house when the accused lured him away from home and killed him by slitting his throat with a sharp weapon. They later dumped the boy's body in a ditch.
On August 25, the accused asked for Tk30,000 from Kalyan's family saying they know the whereabouts of the schoolboy. On the same day, police recovered Kalyan's body from the ditch with the help of the locals and Kalyan's father filed a case against unnamed people with the police.
On April 26, 2021, the Police Bureau of Investigation submitted a charge sheet to the court against three people, including Kawsar and Imdadul.
Kalyan's father Kamal said he did not get justice and will appeal to the superior court.
56 gold bars seized at Chattogram airport
Customs officials on Saturday seized 56 gold bars weighing 6.5 kg from an aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines at Chattogram Shah Amanat Airport.
Taslim Ahmed, manager of Chattogram airport, said a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines ‘BG-148’ landed at the airport from Dubai in the afternoon.
Tipped off, a team of customs officials found the gold bars, wrapped in black scotch tape, from under a seat in an abandoned condition, said joint director of Chattogram Regional Custom Intelligence and Investigation Department Saifur Rahman.
Read: Two brothers held with 10 gold bars in Benapole
However, no one was arrested in connection with the recovery of the gold bars worth Tk 4.48 crore.
A case has been filed with Patenga Police Station in this regard.
Biman MD's office assistant involved in question paper leak: DB chief
The office assistant of the managing director of Biman Bangladesh Airlines was found involved in leaking the question of a recruitment test of the national carrier, said Harun-ur-Rashid, Chief of DMP’s Detective Branch, on Thursday.
The one-hour recruitment test of Biman was scheduled to be held on October 21, but the detectives found that the question of the test had been leaked the night before the exam.
The detectives arrested five officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines involving the case. The members of the law enforcement agencies recovered soft and hard copies of the question, bank cheques, stamped documents, four diaries, admit cards of the examinees, mobile phones and cash from the suspects.
According to the suspects’ statement, Biman's MD's office assistant Zahid photocopied the question papers and took a photo of it on his phone on October 19. On the following day, copies of the question papers were supplied to two others for making several thousand photocopies.
They took money in advance from someone in exchange for a question paper. They also took blank cheques, said the DB chief.
Read: 5 Biman officials held for having link to question leak
About Tk50 lakh were initially reported to have been traded for the question paper leak, he added.
The DB chief also hinted the involvement of Biman's MD and general manager (GM) admin in the question paper leak.
Harun-ur-Rashid said the MD and GM admin have not fulfilled their duty properly.
“How the MD's office assistant took the photo and photocopied the question paper in his office. So, they also cannot avoid responsibility.”
“Whoever is involved in the recruitment of the national flag carrier will be brought to justice. After the investigation, the chargesheet will be submitted to the court very soon,” he added.