Police in a drive arrested suspected five members of a human trafficking gang and 19 Myanmar nationals from a house in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar district on Friday night for intrusion into the country. The five human traffickers were Zahid, 30, son of Selim, Jamal, 38, son of Hashem, Hazera, 50, wife of Amin Sharif, Yunus, 24, son of Ali zohr and Dwin Islam, son of Mohammad Shah. Among the Myanmar nationals, six were women, six men and seven children. Also read: Rohingya man shot dead in Cox’s Bazar Balukhali camp Tipped off, a team of police conducted a drive at the house of one Amin Sharif around 11:10 pm and arrested them , said Abdul Halim, officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police Station. All of them entered the Bangladesh territory illegally through Teknaf border.    

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on Friday claimed to have detained seven members of a drug and human trafficking gang from Teknaf. The detainees have been identified as MD Shafi Ullah, 55, his wife Tyeba Begum, 40, their son Md Anwar Hossain,19, his wife Lucky Aktar, 19, Md Parvej, 16, Md Jalal, 26, and Md Redwan, 19, BGB-2 said in a release. Also read: Drug peddler held with Crystal meth, Yaba pills in Teknaf The seven were detained during two separate drives carried out by the Teknaf battalion of BGB-2, on a tip-off. Some 40,000 yaba tablets worth Tk 1.27 crore, Kyat (Myanmar currency) worth Tk 10,784, 14 grams of gold jewellery worth Tk 88,000, and three mobile phones were seized from the possession of the detainees, the BGB said. During questioning, the detainees admitted to peddling drugs and trafficking Rohingyas from Myanmar to different countries. Also read: BGB seizes drugs worth Tk 5.58 crore from Teknaf The seized jewellery and Kyat will be deposited with the treasury branch of Cox’s Bazaar district administration and cases will be filed against the detainees, said BGB.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) claimed to have busted an international human trafficking gang, with the arrest of three men in Dhaka Monday. The arrestees have been identified as Mollik Razaul Haque Selim, 62, Md Bulbul Ahmed Mollik, 55, and Nironjon Pal, 51. Tipped off, a team of RAB-4 conducted a drive in Mirpur and Uttara areas of the capital and arrested the three human traffickers on Monday night, said ASP (media) at RAB headquarters, Imran Khan. Also read: Ringleader of human trafficking syndicate among 8 held in city During the drive, the elite force also seized fake passports, fake visas stamps, photos, mobile phone sets, SIM cards, cash and other documents from their possession. During interrogation, they told RAB officials that would lure their potential victims with job offers in countries like Australia, Portugal, the Netherlands, Romania, Greece, France and Malta. "However, their targets were trafficked to India instead," Imran said. Also read: Rab arrest three members of a human trafficking gang

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.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested seven people, including an alleged chief coordinator of an international human trafficking syndicate, in simultaneous drives on Saturday night in Madaripur, Gupalgonj and Dhaka. The arrestees were identified as chief coordinator “Rubel Syndicate” Md. Ashiq, known as ‘Euro Ashik’ , 25, Md. Azizul Haque,35, Md Mizanur Rahman Mizan, 43, Nazmul Huda, 31, Sima Akhter,23, Helena Begum, 42, and Polly Akhter,43. The elite force said it also recovered 17 passports, 14 cheque books of various banks, Tk 56,670 in cash and other documents from their possessions. Also read: Bangladeshi returnee from Mauritius files human trafficking case against recruiting agency The drives came amid reports of growing incidents of trafficking people luring them with jobs abroad. Some 43 people were killed / missing when a boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia on June 28-29 last month while going to Europe illegally. Besides, some 84 people were rescued from a wrecked boat off the coast of Tunisia. Among them were citizens of Bangladesh, Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea and Chand. The deaths due to movements of illegal migrants on risky routes were critically highlighted in international and domestic media. In the past too, RAB has been able to arrest several members of such Bangladeshi human trafficking syndicate. The racket takes huge amount of money by fraud from innocent people. Also read: Law Minister seeks coordinated response against human trafficking In the wake of the alleged fraud, cases have been filed by relatives of the victims in Bangladesh at various times. Complaints have also been received from several families who have gone missing at different times. Accordingly, RAB has intensified its intelligence surveillance. Based on secret information, a special joint team comprising Intelligence wing of the Rab headquarters and members of Rab-8 battalion, carried out simultaneous drives in Madaripur, Gupalgonj and Dhaka from 10:00 pm on Saturday night and it was continued till 6:00 am on Sunday, said an official of the Rab headquarters. Interrogation of the arrestees revealed that they have been involved in this crime for a long time luring the victims with lucrative jobs abroad. They work in collaboration with their foreign counterparts, he added.