There has been alarming increase in incidents of abduction of children for ransom causing concern among members of the public. Those abducted are often victims of murders, media reports said.
RAB rescued about 1000 people, 30 per cent of whom are children from the kidnappers since its inception.
Children are abducted for huge ransom and later many of them are killed as the victims’ parents fail to pay it. RAB legal and media wing director ATM Habibur Rahman told The New Nation.
Sometimes friends, relatives and acquaintances commit the crimes as they have information about the children and specially the financial solvency of their parents. During the recent past according to media reports abducted the decomposed bodies of boys were recovered from separate places in the country.
The body of Nur Alam(13), son of Tariqul Islam of Gujrigura village, was recovered from Pum River at Banghari Islampur village in Boda upazila of Panchagarh on March 6. He was a Class VI student at Manikpir High School in the upazila. He went missing since February 27.
Police in another incidents recovered the decomposed body of Ramjan Ali(3) from a field in Bokterpur of Savar on March 10, about 17 days after he went missing from the area. His father Mizanur Rahman, an apparel factory worker who was injured in the collapse of Rana Plaza turned mum following the murder of his son. He filed a general dairy on February 21 in this connection. The police recovered the body of Imon (12), a student of Class IX from a ditch at Bandar upazila’s Kamtal in Narayanganj after 35 days of his abduction from the upazila’s Malibhita. Three persons including a cousin of Imon, have been arrested in this connection.
Ali Asgar, maternal uncle of Imon said his nephew was allured by his cousin Al Amin on January 29 from his house. Al amin together with two other associates Sayedur and Shahjahan kept Imon confined to a house near PBL Housing project in Bandar. They demanded Tk. 10 lakh ransom from Imon’s mother over phone. Imon’s mother agreed to pay the ransom but instead of freeing Imon the kidnappers killed him out of fear of being nabbed, Ali Asgar said. Imon’s father works in Mauritius.
The police also recovered the decomposed body of Asraful Alam Apu, son of Mohammad Idris, a student of class IX, from Patiya upazila, eight days after he had gone missing on January 19 from a wedding ceremony. Apu was killed on January 27 this year. Idris Ali said, “Bappy one of Apu’s friends was the mastermind of the incident. ” Bappy and his associates kidnapped my child for ransom. I was ready to pay them Tk. Five lakh as per their demand but none turned up to take the money. The initial demand of the kidnappers was Tk. One crore,” he said.
The kidnappers spread gunpowder on the face of Apu so that his body could not be identified, Idris Ali said. Sagar and Tushar, he said, were also involved in illegal drugs trade. Both of them were released from jail only a month before the abduction of Apu, he said.
Police arrested the miscreants by tracking their sim card. Seven persons have been arrested in this connection on the basis of confessional statement of Sagar and Tushar.
A total of 998 people, most of whom are children and businessmen, were kidnapped in last 14 months, police website said.
Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Abdul Jalil Mandal said incidents of kidnapping has been on increase mainly due to moral degradation. The parents are also in many cases indifferent to their children, he said adding the police do its best to ensure punishment of the criminals. There is need for a social movement to create awareness against the crime so that people representing different walks of life get involved in the fight against the crime, he said.
