Staff Repoter :
Police have arrested another nine people with alleged links to the killings of 26 Bangladeshi nationals in Libya.
The Detective Branch and the Criminal Investigation Department made the arrests from parts of the capital on Sunday under the anti-trafficking and anti-terrorism law, Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Abdul Baten said on Monday. Six suspects arrested by the DB police have been identified as Badsha Mia, Jahangir Mia, Akbar Mia, ‘Sujan’, Nazmul Hasan and Liakat Sheikh alias Lipu. Four passports, two mobile phones and two notebooks containing details of financial transactions linked to the incident have been recovered from them, said Baten.
The suspects arrested by the CID team are: Sohag Hossain, 50, Khalid Chowdhury, 42, Sanjida, 38. Two of them are residents of Dhaka, while the third is from Narsingdi, said Additional Superintendent Md Faruk Hossain.
Earlier, 13 people were arrested in 22 cases filed across the country over the killings of the Bangladeshi workers in Libya, the Police Headquarters said on Sunday.
The recent arrests made by the police take the total tally of detained suspects to 22, Baten said.
The family of a slain Libyan people trafficker killed 26 Bangladeshi and four African migrants in revenge for his death at Mizdah on May 28.
Libya has long been a destination for migrants because of its oil-funded economy, but is also an important way-station for people attempting to reach Europe across the Mediterranean.
A trafficking network at home and abroad convinced the victims over the phone and in person that going to Italy from Libya would allow them to secure high-paying jobs at little risk.
According to case details, in the first week of April, the accused called the victims and asked them to gather at an unknown place from different parts of Libya. Afterwards, in mid-May, a kidnapping plot was staged in which the victims were moved to the Libyan town of Mizdah with the help of some terrorist groups.
The victims were later physically abused by local Libyan human traffickers while images and sound recordings of the torture were sent to their families in Bangladesh through mobile apps, with a demand of about Tk 1 million for their freedom.
As the level of torture increased, one of the Sudanese victims killed a local human trafficker in self-defence.
Later, the family of the slain people smuggler shot the victims to death in a revenge attack, leaving 11 others wounded.
