Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
The Criminal Investigation Department of police has brought human trafficking and homicide charges against 38 people in connection with the killings of 26 Bangladeshi migrants in Libya.
SI Rashed Fazal started a case under the anti-trafficking law on Tuesday night, in which another 30-35 people were charged anonymously, Paltan Police Station OC Abu Bakar Siddique said.
The victims were trafficked to Libya with false promises of well-paid jobs through various international routes in exchange for various sums of money. They were subsequently forced into hard labour for little money, according to the case dossier.
Besides, the owners, employees and brokers of Sky View Tours and Travels and other travel agencies and recruiting agencies across Bangladesh lured the victims from different areas of the country and sent them to Libya, it added.
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, reports bdnews24.com.
According to the case, 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 Mizda 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.