Abductors using women to trap their victims in city

The newly formed anti-kidnapping squad has found the existence of a strong syndicate of abductors, who are allegedly using young women to trap people of affluent families, plainclothes police revealed Monday after busting a gang of professional kidnappers.
They said the syndicate, which operates a strong network all over the country, picks the probable targets at various bars, hotels, club parties and centres of revelry in the capital by tactfully collecting their mobile phone numbers.
Then the gang sends those phone numbers to their paid girls to develop 'relationship' with their targeted victims, who cannot resist the charm of the young women.
Once the relationship is deepened, the girls ask for a date at a suitable place, where another group of the abductors, equipped with materials like handcuffs, fake firearms and vehicles, takes position earlier to 'arrest' the target. In fact, they abduct the trapped persons.
Talking on the issue, Senior Assistant Commissioner of the Detective Branch (DB) SM Nazmul Haque said the group then kidnaps the persons, keeps them confined in a secret place, and demands ransom from their family members.
"Sometime, the kidnappers identify themselves as members of the law enforcement agencies and we have come to know about the latest technique of using young women in the crime after arresting five members of a professional kidnapping gang," he said.
 "It's a strong syndicate of abductors, who're committing these crimes in a planned way, divided into several groups. We're interrogating the detained persons to get more information in this regard," he said adding: the girls normally spend a time of around 10 days to net their targets.
Following a complaint of an incident of abduction on May 3 last, the anti-kidnapping squad launched an investigation into the allegation of kidnapping a businessman from the capital's Turag area on April 30.
The kidnappers, however, freed the hotel businessman upon receiving a ransom of Tk 1.2 million after eight days of his captivity.
The squad personnel also took the arrested gang members to a media briefing at the DMP (Dhaka Metropolitan Police) Media Cell on Monday noon where the detainees had admitted to their involvement in committing such crimes.
The arrested were identified as Mohammad Rezaul, Seuli Akhter alias Shilpi, Anwar Hossain, Abdus Samad and Mortuza. They hailed from various parts of Jamalpur district.
Citing preliminary investigation, Assistant Commissioner Jahangir Hossain, another senior member of the squad, said the arrested persons had informed them that the girls also had taken objectionable photographs with the victims, which were used for blackmailing.
He said the gang started its operation from various parts of Jamalpur and Pabna districts.
 "We have arrested the criminals from a one-storey building, where they rented a flat of three rooms to commit the crimes," he said.
When contacted, Additional Deputy Commissioner Sanwar Hossain, who is the chief of the newly launched unit, said they have detected some other groups of abductors.
He said the squad has so far received 63 kidnap-related allegations since its inception on May 3 last. Of the allegations, 28 were under the DMP, in which 15 victims were rescued.
The 40-member specially trained team has been assigned to conduct raids to rescue the abducted victims and arrest the kidnappers, the officials said.