Kamal Hossain alias Hazi Kamal, ringleader of a human trafficking racket, was detained by RAB on Monday. -AA
Elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Monday detained an alleged ringleader of a human trafficking gang. He was identified as Kamal Hossain alias Hazi Kamal, 55.
RAB members nabbed him from Khilbarirtek of Shahadatpur in the capital in connection with the killing of 26 Bangladeshis in Libya. Human traffickers killed 30 migrant workers, including 26 Bangladeshis in Libyan town Mizdah, some 180-km south of Tripoli on Thursday.
Upon secret information, a team of RAB-3 carried out a drive at Khilbarirtek of Boroitola Bazar at Shahadatpur around 5 in the morning and detained Hazi Kamal. Briefing journalists at the RAB-3 Tikatoli battalion headquarters in the afternoon, its commanding officer Lt Col Rafibul Hasan said, ''Hazi Kamal is a tiles contractor. A good number of workers work under him. He used to allure them sending to Libya and different Middle East countries where they could make more money.''
"He used to tell the tiles laborers that they will not have to pay Tk 500,000-600,000 at a time. Initially they will have to pay Tk 50,000-100,000. Rest of the money they have to pay after reaching their destinations," the RAB-3 commanding officer said quoting Hazi Kamal.
"After selecting a group of 10-15 people, the human traffickers used to send them to Libya using Dhaka-Kolkata-Mumbai-Dubai routes and then Benghazi of Libya. It needed 10-15 days to reach there,'' he added.
The human traffickers used to keep the fortune-seekers hostage after they had reached Libya. Later, the traffickers used to take money from the family members of the Bangladeshis, said Lt Col Rakibul Hasan said.
There were some victims among the 26 Bangladeshis whom Kamal had sent, he added.
Sources at the RAB-3 headquarters said most of the victims in Libya hailed from Madaripur, Faridpur, Kishrgonj and Magura districts.
RAB said, Hazi Kamal was involved in sending around 400 Bangladeshis to Libya illegally in the past 10-12 years.
All 26 Bangladeshis, who were killed in a gun attack in Libya on Thursday, were buried at Mizdah in Libya.
Bangladesh has released names of 23 of those killed. They are: Sujan and Kamrul from Gopalganj; Jakir Hossain, Jewel, Firuz, Jewel-2, Manik, Asadul, Aynal Mollah, Monir, Sajib, Shaheen, and Shamim from Madaripur; Arfan from Dhaka; Lal Chand from Magura; Rajon, Rahim, Shakil, Sakib, Akash, Shohag and Muhammad Ali from Kishoreganj; and Rakibul from Jashore.
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