busted a gang of kidnappers, all private university students, and rescued two victims in and near the capital on Monday."A team of RAB 1 conducted a drive in Joydebpur area of Gazipur on Monday evening and tossed in the slammer
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
eight members of the gang," Kamrul Hasan, operation officer of RAB 1 and an assistant police superintendent, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
"The members of the team rescued two hostages from the gang's den and seized six mobile phones and a microbus," Kamrul said.
Based on the information given by these eight arrested persons, RAB picked up the gang's ninth member, who is a woman, in the capital's Uttara.
Seven of the arrestees are Shahin, 26, Tariqur Rahman, 22, Md Roki alias Jibon, 20, Abu Tareq, 25, Sanjay Roy, 23, Al Amin, 22, Sabrina Kabir alias Moumita, 20, all students of the Uttara-based International University of Business, Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT).
The other two are Sheikh Shahin, 23, student of Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (Duet), and Md Kaiyum, 24, student of Uttara University.
The two rescued victims are Shimon Miah, 28, and his cousin Md Saddam, 24. Shimon is an expatriate Bangladeshi living in Singapore and is originally from Kaliganj of Gazipur. He came to visit Bangladesh on May 5 and was kidnapped on Monday.
RAB officials said that Shahin, believed to be the leader of the gang, used his girlfriend Moumita to lure Shimon into a trap. Moumita called up Shimon and tried to build a relationship.
On Monday, Moumita fixed a date with Shimon; they met near the Agriculture Research Centre in Gazipur at around 11:30am. Shimon took his cousin Saddam with him.
Soon, the kidnappers, in the guise of detective police, came to the area and picked up Shimon and Saddam. They blindfolded them, snatched Tk4,500, a gold chain and a ring and took them to their den inside the Bhawal forest.
The kidnappers told Shimon to call up his brother, who also lives in Singapore, and ask for Tk5 lakh as ransom, or else they threatened to sever his limbs.
When they were torturing the hostages, a female worker of a nearby mango forest noticed the incident and informed other locals who then informed the Porabari camp of RAB. Then the drive was conducted, said RAB official Kamrul.
Kamrul said they are trying to find out whether the gang was involved in any other kidnapping. He also said the process of filing a case against the kidnappers was underway.