Bangladesh News

Police unearthed important information about a strong network of women traffickers at Fakirapool in the capital and their links with the officials of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).

“The unholy alliance is involved with a huge illegal business,” said Investigation Officer (IO) Shahadat Hossain after interrogating the detained BMET officials and five of the 31 women whose travel to Lebanon was held up at Zia International Airport on Friday morning, as the BMET clearances including work permits were found to be fake.

The four staff of BMET and another of Bangladesh Biman were detained following the incident for okaying the women’s documents. During the police interrogation, they also admitted of the BMET involvement in issuing the clearance illegally.

The staff posted at the Welfare Desk of BMET — Welfare Officer Mohammad Shahjalal and computer operators Mosharraf Hossain, Hasan Jahirul and Hafizur Rahman — earlier said that there was disturbance in their computer, which is why they could not check the women’s documents.

Detained Biman official Ramzan Ali and witness Abdul Kader, another BMET official, were also interrogated.

The five government staff are now kept at the Airport Police Station.

Asked what steps will be taken against the high officials of BMET main office at Kakrail when the Welfare Desk staff admitted of the bureau’s involvement, IO Shahadat Hossain said, “I cannot say it now.”

The police also found names of at least seven travel agencies linked with the women trafficking process, he said.

He, however, declined to disclose the names for the ’sake of investigation’.

The IO said police raided some areas, but failed to catch any agents as they had already got to know the police actions and went into hiding.

Meanwhile, a source said two of the accused are Nurul Islam and his wife Sathi of Lalbagh in the capital and work as police sources.

Immigration police on Friday filed a case with the Airport Police Station accusing the five government staff and 33 brokers of involvement with the trafficking attempt.

The 38 accused are very influential, which is why they could not be identified or arrested earlier during the tenure of the immediate past government, the source said.