Bangladeshi men on Interpol list wanted for murder and trafficking are caught

TWO Bangladeshi men accused of killing and kidnapping migrants have been arrested, police said last Friday (15), just weeks after the country shared details of suspected human traffickers with Interpol for the first time.

Police said Jafor Eqbal, 38, who appeared on Interpol’s Red Notice list of wanted fugitives on suspicion of murder, kidnapping and deceiving job seekers, was detained in Italy earlier this month. The second man, Shahadat Hossain, 29, who faced similar accusations on the international list, was last year.

“Interpol helped us a lot,” said Jisanul Hoque, a senior police official from Bangladesh’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), adding that the two men were police force’s wanted arrested in Dhaka late suspected of trafficking Bangladeshis to countries, including Libya. “We will look to take (Interpol’s) support to catch traffickers who deceive Bangladeshis in the future as well,” he added.

In November, Bangladesh sought Interpol’s help to arrest trafficking kingpins for the first time, a step that came after at least 24 Bangladeshi migrants were abducted and killed in Libya in May last year.

A month after the killings, police arrested more than 50 suspected traffickers accused of extorting money from people on false promises of jobs overseas, including a ringleader who had illegally sent 400 Bangladeshis to Libya. More than 70 Bangladeshis are on Interpol’s Red Notice list, which seeks the provisional arrest of fugitives.