Four-hour search in Teknaf hills after reports of three bodies finds no one
Law enforcement agencies conducted a joint operation in the remote hills of Leda-Rangikhali in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar, after reports that three bodies were lying near a human-trafficking gang’s prison. Despite searching a 10-kilometre mountain path for nearly four hours from Saturday (7 November) morning, no body was found.
The operation, led by the Army’s 10 Infantry Division, began at 7:30am on Saturday and involved more than 150 members of the Army, the Border Guard Bangladesh and the police. After about four hours, they returned at around 11:30am.
Saiful Islam, officer-in-charge of Teknaf Model Police Station, said they crossed about 10 kilometres of remote mountain path and searched various places, but no body was found.
The OC said the police also have no confirmed information on whether anyone removed the bodies.
Main Uddin Bhutta, a local resident who accompanied the law enforcement team, said that despite searching various places in the hills, no body was found. A couple of cooking pots and some bedding-like items were found there.
In his view, many parts of the hills are so remote that they may have been left out of the search. He also said the possibility that the traffickers removed the bodies before the operation cannot be ruled out.
Earlier, on Thursday (5 November), joint forces raided the trafficking gang’s secret prison in the same hilly area. Fifty-seven people were rescued in that operation, and six members of the gang were arrested.
During the operation, joint force members exchanged fire with armed traffickers. Army soldier Mohammad Titas Sheikh (27) was shot and killed. After formalities by the Army on Friday evening, he was buried with state honours in his village in Nagarkanda, Faridpur.
On Friday, the rescued people were handed over to their families at the Teknaf Model Police Station premises. Among them were 51 Bangladeshis and 6 Rohingya.
After Thursday’s operation, reports appeared in various media that three bodies were lying on that hill. Shahidul Islam, one of the rescued people, told journalists that he had seen three bodies lying near the prison.
Shahidul also said he had heard that several people were killed in the gunfight between the two sides. However, he could not confirm whether the bodies were those of members of the trafficking gang or of people who had escaped from captivity.
With no body found, questions have also arisen among local residents. Md Abdul Hamid, a resident of Leda, said it should be investigated whether the bodies were removed before law enforcement arrived.
He demanded an investigation into where they went, noting that locals as well as the rescued people had reported seeing bodies lying there.
Accounts of the rescued people have revealed the trafficking gang’s deception, torture and captivity. Victim Asaduzzaman said he was lured to Cox’s Bazar with the promise of a job and then confined in a secret hideout in the hills.
He was held captive there for eight days and tried to escape twice without success. More than 50 people were in the prison, and preparations were under way to traffic them by sea. Armed men guarded the hideout, and the captives’ mobile phones and personal belongings were taken away.
