Joynal Abedin Khan :
The Detective Branch (DB) of Police in separate drives arrested five members of an international human organ trafficking syndicate from the capital on Friday night, said Muntasirul Islam, Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
The arrested persons are Abdul Jalil, Sheikh Jakir Ibn Aziz alias Shakir, Ashiqur Rahman alias Jebin, Fazle Rabbi and Jihan Rahman, the police official said. The DB members also rescued two victims from the possession of the arrested persons. They are Md Mahbub Hasan and Mahbubur Rahman Shanto.
The detectives recovered two injections, one syringe, one dagger and one towel from their possessions, he said.
Meanwhile, a Dhaka court has granted three-day remand for each of the traffickers.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Hasibul Haq passed the order on Saturday afternoon after they were produced by DB. Monirul Islam, Joint Commissioner of DMP said, “A team of detective police, led by Assistant Commissioner Mahmuda Afroz Lucky conducted separate drives in Bangla Academy and Gabtoli areas of the city and arrested them at night.
“Abdul Jalil, a suspected agent of international human organ traffickers, brought a man, Abu Hasan, to Dhaka from Joypurhat for the illegal business on Friday night. Tipped off, the DB team arrested Abdul Jalil from the city’s Gabtali area at night and rescued Hasan from there. Hasan informed DB that Jalil brought him here for buying a CNG-run auto-rickshaw for him in exchange of his kidney,” the DB official said.
According to information given by Jalil, police arrested four other members — Shakir, Jebin, Fazle Rabbi, and Zihan — from Bangla Academy area, he said.
The team also rescued a victim, Mahbubur Rahman Shanto, from there.
During preliminary interrogation, the arrestees reportedly revealed that they brought Shanto here saying him he will be given Tk 20,000 for donating blood, Monirul said.
They also confessed that they had planned to sell Shanto’s kidneys to international human organ traffickers at Tk 4 lakh, and then kill him and dump his body into the Buriganga River after taking his organs, he said.
Intelligence sources said, the idea of selling organs is not new in the country. As per demand, kidneys, livers, eyes and other transplantable organs of the trafficked human beings are sold randomly, they said.
These were proved recently after autopsy of the unearthed bodies from the mass graves in Songkhla province of Kuala Lumpur, they claimed.
Meanwhile, many villages, mainly North Bengal, have resorted to selling organs under pressure to pay back micro-credit lenders.
An eye witness account by trafficked one Sohel said, “Reaching Thailand, blood sample of the trafficked people is tested. Then the demanded people are separated according to the condition of their kidney and eyes.”
According to the latest data of WHO, about 10,000 human organs are smuggled every year across the world which is about 10 per cent of the total transplanted organs.
A statistics of Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation of 2012 said, kidney is the most used organ for transplantation which is 67.85 per cent of the total organs. Next liver which is 20.91 percent, lung 3.80 percent, pancreas 2.11 percent and small intestine 15 percent.
Police at one station in Joypurhat have identified at least 42 cases where impoverished farmers have sold their kidneys. According to media reports, at least 200 villagers in Joypurhat district had sold off their body parts.
Mohammad Akhtar Alam, 33, bears a 15-inch scar on his stomach as he had a kidney removal. The organ removal — which is illegal in Bangladesh unless it is being given to a spouse or family member — has left him partially paralysed, with only one eye working and unable to do any heavy lifting.
Another victim, Mohammad Mokarram Hossain, also from Kalai upazilas of Joypurhat said, “I took the decision to return the money I borrowed from NGOs. Accordingly he had undergone an operation in India to remove his kidney.
“The doctor told me there is no risk but now I can’t do any heavy work.”
Professor Moniruzzaman from the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University has been researching on organ trade in Bangladesh for 12 years and says some people feel they are left with no choice but to sell a body part.
“A lot of people’s debt from NGOs has spiralled out of control. Because they cannot repay the loans, there is only one way for people to get out and that is to sell their kidney,” he said.
His research into Bangladesh’s organ trade reveals that of the 33 kidney sellers he interviewed, some had sold their organs due to feeling under pressure to repay loans.
In 1999, Bangladeshi passed the Organ Transplant Act, which banned the trade in body parts and advertising for organ sellers. Under the law, transplants are legal only between relatives and husband and wife.
