‘Tortured and left to die in a jungle’

Like many, Ahsan Habib from Brahmanbaria dreamt of a better future abroad.

While working as a marketing officer at a private tour and travel company in Dhaka, the 30-year-old youth named Mamunur Rashid Mamun, hailing from the same district.

He promised Ahsan that he would send him to Malta, a Southern European island. Their contract was Tk 12 lakh and Mamun would arrange a job at a hotel in Malta.

What happened to Ahsan was horrific.

He was first taken to India on a travel visa last year. There, he along with 25 other Bangladeshis were kept in a room and tortured for money. After extorting the money, they were boarded on a trawler to Sri Lanka where the fortune seekers were left in a jungle.

The story came out after Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police on Wednesday arrested four Bangladeshi members of an international human trafficking ring from the capital's Uttara and Dakshinkhan areas.

At a press briefing on Thursday, CID Additional Deputy Inspector General (Additional DIG) Sheikh Omar Faruque said the racket is active in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

"The group used to 'recruit' people to Malta, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Egypt, the Maldives and Cambodia for jobs. At first, they were taken to India through land ports with 'fake' travel visas."

"The group then collected money from the victims' family members. If anyone refused to pay, he would be detained and tortured. After collecting the money, Indian brokers would take them to Sri Lanka. There, they were left in a jungle," said the police official.

During the raid, 28 passports, 19 seals of different embassies, banks and agencies and 10 fake visas of Cambodia were recovered from the arrestees.

They are: Habibur Rahman (51), Mamunur Rashid Mamun (41), Jamal Hossain (40) and Nahidul Islam Palash.

"They are members of an international human trafficking racket," the police official added.

Talking to The Daily Star, the victim, Ahsan, said he arranged Tk 8 lakh by selling his land and gave it to Mamun and four to five other accomplices, including Habibur and Jamal, at their Uttara office on May 5, 2019.

After 10 days, Ahsan got a call from Mamun, saying that his visa had been issued. When he came to the office, Habibur gave him the passport with an Indian visa.

He told Ahsan that his Malta visa would be issued from Hyderabad, India.

Ahsan boarded a bus to Benapole, escorted by a broker named Ali. From there, another broker took him to Kolkata where he stayed for a night and met another Indian broker, who took him to Hyderabad by train. There, he met 19 more Bangladeshis, kept in a room. The traffickers took away their passports.

"We were locked there. They wanted Tk 4 lakh from me. As I refused, they tortured me. I called my father back home for money. He gave the money to Mamun's brother Sumon," said Ahsan, adding that the traffickers did the same to others.

From there, they were taken to Sri Lanka by a trawler and left in a jungle. Ahsan found six more Bangladeshis there, trapped like him.

Luckily, Ahsan was able to escape and eventually met a Sri Lankan man who helped him call his father.

His father sent him Tk 33,000 for a plane ticket. With the help of the administration, Ahsan could get back to Bangladesh, after 27 days in captivity.

But his ordeal was yet to be over.

After coming back to Bangladesh in June last year, he found out that his father had passed away.

Resolute, he then went looking for the traffickers but found their office closed. There, he met another victim -- Al Amin.

"Al Amin told me that Habibur took Tk 27.03 lakh from six people, promising to send them to Europe and Egypt."

After a week of search, they finally got the location of Habibur and Mamun. When they went there to get their money, the two threatened them with dire consequences.

Ahsan then made a complaint to the CID. A case was also filed with Uttara East Police Station under human trafficking act in this connection.

The CID official said these so-called recruiting agencies don't have any registration. They take money from people, change their location frequently and go into hiding.

He said they would communicate with their Indian counterpart soon to take action against the international racket.