Trafficking victim lost her baby in the womb

Artwork: Dibarah Mahboob

A few months after she was trafficked to India and forced into sex work, 18-year-old Sania, not her real name, found out that she was pregnant.

But that didn't stop the traffickers from exploiting her.

Luckily, she managed to escape through the window of a massage parlour in Bengaluru on May 2 and got on a train to Kolkata. She arrived in Bangladesh on May 6 crossing the border in Jashore.

Like all the other victims of this racket, Sania fell into this trap in the hope of finding a well-paid and decent job in India. The international human trafficking racket came to the fore after footage showing a Bangladeshi woman being tortured in India went viral on social media.

Right after reaching Bengaluru, Sania was forced into sex work at different hotels and massage parlours in Bengaluru and Chennai.

After she came back to Bangladesh and reached her home in the capital, she fell sick and was taken to a hospital. The doctors said that her baby had not survived the ordeal and she had to undergo a surgery.

Sania's elder sister and aunt were also trafficked to India in November and December last year by the same racket thought to be led by Nodi Akter, 31, and Rifadul Islam Ridoy, 26, popularly known as Ridoy Babo on TikTok.

The whereabouts of her sister and aunt are still unknown.

She is one of the five victims, aged between 18 and 27, who managed to flee from the clutches of the traffickers and come back.

She filed a case on Saturday accusing 22 people, including Nodi and Ridoy, under human trafficking prevention act with Hatirjheel Police Station. Another victim filed a case with the same police station the same day against 14 people including Ridoy.

Two other victims had earlier filed separate cases with the police station.

Police have been looking for Nodi, who is said to have trafficked several women to India over the last few years.

Md Shahidullah, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Tejgaon division), said the racket has networks in the UAE and some other countries in the Middle East.

In her complaint, Sania said, her mother, step-father and four sisters used to live in a house in the capital. The step-father was the only earning member of the family.

Her elder sister 20-year-old Rita, not her real name, dropped out of high-school and was desperately looking for a job when she met suspected trafficker Nodi on Facebook.

Nodi, who was in India that time, promised her a job at a beauty parlour in Bengaluru that would pay Tk 30,000 a month.

They made a plan and Rita left for Jashore on November 20 last year.

A few days later, Nodi visited Sania's home and said Rita fell sick and was undergoing treatment at a hospital and that there was no one to take care of her.

She then said Sania should also go to Bengaluru and work at the parlour. Sania's mother was not willing to let her go alone and requested that Sania's aunt Marina, not her real name, go with her.

On December 16, 2020, Nodi took the duo to Benapole by bus. Then they were taken to Kolkata, from where they were sent to Bengaluru by train. They slept at the house of a woman named Taslima.

A day after reaching there, Sania was sent to a house in the city while Marina was sent to a hotel in Kerala. Both of them were raped and sexually abused there.

After three days, Sania was taken back to Taslima's house where she found her elder sister Rita. By then, they understood that they were victims of traffickers.

When Rita protested and demanded to be released, gang members named Ridoy, Sagar, Akeel, Rubel and Sabuj went to the house and severely tortured her. Ridoy took Sania to a house in Anandapura Circle where she found her aunt Marina and three other girls.

From there, the gang used to send her to different hotels and massage parlours in Bengaluru and Chennai until she managed to escape.

HUNT FOR NODI

She is accused in all five trafficking cases filed with Hatirjheel Police Station in recent weeks.

Hafiz Al Faruk, additional deputy commissioner (Tejgaon division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star yesterday that law enforcers in Bangladesh arrested 13 suspects while Indian police arrested 12.

Police said Nodi, a key suspect, can speak four languages. The traffickers used her to lure young women from Bangladesh.

Investigators have learnt that Nodi herself was trafficked to Malaysia by a racket in 2017. After coming back to the country in 2019, she met another trafficker named Sonia and eventually got involved in the racket.