Eight alleged members of a human trafficking gang, including its ring leader, were detained by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) from city’s Badda area early Wednesday. Rab identified the detainees as Saiful Islam alias Tutul, 38 of Meherpur district, Taiyab Ali, 45 of Rangpur district, Shah Mohamamd Jalal Uddin Limon, 38 of Gopalganj district, Maruf Hasan, 37 of Patuakhali district, Jahangir Alam, 38 of Meherpur district, Laltu Islam, 28 of Meherpur district, Alamin Hossain, 30 of Shariatpur district and Abdullah Al Mamun, 54 of Kushtia district. Read:6 members of illegal kidney trading racket arrested: Rab Tipped off, a team of Rab-4 conducted a drive in four travel agencies—Tutul overseas, Limon overseas and Loyal overseas and detained them with ten passports, seven files, four seals, 17 cellphones, five registrar, three mobile phone SIM, cheque books of four banks, two computers and cash Tk 10,070. During investigation, the elite force found that Tutul used to work as the grocery shop owner in Gangni upaizla of Meherpur district and he got involved in the human trafficking gang and used to send people to different countries through travel agencies, said sources at Rab headquarters. Read: Digital Microfinance: DB arrests five e-loan frauds Later, he opened three travel agencies and sent people to many countries after taking several lakh money from them. Legal steps are underway against the detainees, said Rab.

An unhealthy competition between travel agencies and irresponsible behaviour of tourists have endangered the natural ecosystem of newly-emerged island ‘Char Bijoy’ in the Bay of Bengal, about 40 kms southeast off the Kuakata sea beach.   The 5,000-acre island is home to thousands of migratory birds and countless red crabs. When the crabs crawl out of the ground, the entire island seems from afar that it is covered in a red carpet. The flocking of so many birds in the island at the same time gives it a picturesque look.   As the name of this island found traction in mass media, its popularity began to rise and ‘Char Bijoy’ added a new dimension to the tourist attraction of Kuakata.   As more and more tourists arrive at Kuakata, the local travel agencies have resorted to an unhealthy completion to take as many tourists to the island as possible. The absence of any directive from the Tourism Ministry about visiting ‘Char Bijoy’ made their job even easier.