Anti-kidnap squad busts gang of abductors

The anti-kidnap squad in an overnight raid busted another gang of professional abductors, who allegedly engage young women to trap people of affluent families, from various parts of the capital, officials said Wednesday.
Those arrested were identified as Masuma (27), Rajib alias Sajib (23), Mohammad Nikul (26), Abul Kashem (47), Iqbal Hossain alias Kabir (35) and Emdadur Rahman (30) who hail from Kishoreganj and Sunamganj districts.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Sanwar Hossain, who is the chief of the newly-launched unit, said they made the arrests from the capital's Badda and Mirpur areas based on a kidnap case filed by a UP (union parishad) chairman with the Gulshan Police Station.
He said the kidnappers abducted Osmani Nagar Gualabazar UP Chairman of Sylhet Ataur Rahman Manik on May 11 last from the capital's Gulshan area but released him after payment of a ransom worth Tk 40,000 to them the following day.
However, the kidnappers again demanded Tk 300,000 from the chairman and started blackmailing him by threatening that an objectionable photograph of him would be made public on refusal of paying the amount.
Meanwhile, another official of the squad said the arrested persons confessed that they were usually trapping people by making them have 'false romantic affairs' with the female members of their group.
"Then, they release the victims after realising ransoms," the official said.
The plainclothes officials said the gang was involved in kidnapping a number of people including another UP chairman of Nabiganj upazila of Sylhet, an NRB (Non-Resident Bangladeshi) and two others in Sylhet and Comilla districts. They also collected ransoms of Tk 321,000, Tk 208,000, Tk 50,000 and Tk 19,000 respectively from those victims.
The police administration formed the 40-member specially trained team to conduct raids to rescue abducted victims and arrest kidnappers to stop the ongoing spree of abductions across the country, the officials said.