One gang trafficked over 1,000 girls into India: Police

Police have arrested three allegedhuman traffickers from Satkhira border areaafter a traffickingvictim, who managed to return from India, filed a case with Dhaka's Hatirjheel police station on Tuesday.

The arrested persons are Mehedi Hasan Babu, Mohiuddin and Abdul Quader.

Mehedi is the leader of a gang which trafficked over 1,000 womeninto India, said Md Shahidullah, deputy commissioner of Tejgaon Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Wednesday. 

The victim filed the case against 12 accused. Police found out that five of them are in Bangladesh and then conducted drives.

Later,police arrested the three men from Satkhira border area, said the police officer.

During primary interrogation, Mehedi admitted that he has been involved in human trafficking for nearly eight years, the Md Shahidullah said.

Police has seized a diary with personal details of many victims and traffickers during the drives.

The girl who filed the latest case was introduced to Hridoy, known as TikTok Hridoy, at Hatirjheel area in 2019.

Hridoy lured her with promises of better and well-paid jobs in India and then trafficked her.

The victim told police that Hridoy arranged several parties for local TikTok users in 2020 at Narayanganj and Gazipur.

The complainant girl and some others were invited to another party in Kushtia in last February, but when they went there, they were trafficked into India and then confined at a house in Bengaluru.

The girl was confined there for 77 days. She was tortured, sexually assaulted and forced into prostitution, said DC Shahidullah.

The victim told police that she and some other girls managed to flee from confinement in Bengaluru with the help of the girl who was seen being tortured in a video that went viral recently.

The law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh have started raids against human traffickers after the video of the 24-year-old woman, who was seen being tortured and sexually assaulted in India recently, went viral on social media.

Indian police on 27 May arrested Hridoy Babu along with five other Bangladeshis from Bengaluru.

The Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies later identified a transnational racket, involving some Bangladeshis, which trapped victims using the social media platform TikTok.

Earlier, on Tuesday the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) came up with the information of arresting four human traffickers who have trafficked over 500 girls into India.

The group also has contacts with Hridoy who helped them in trafficking 50 girls using TikTok.