Six youths from Kalia Upazila in Joypurhat have been detained at Shahjalal International Airport for possessing fake visas and have been staying at the residence of a broker for six days. They want to return to their own homes with the refunded money. Otherwise, they have threatened to set themselves on fire with kerosene in the broker’s house.
As of Thursday, they are still staying at the broker’s house in Jindarpur village of the upazila.
The youths currently staying at the broker’s house are Mehedi Hasan from Molamgarihat, Abu Taher, Atikul Islam, Khayrul Islam, Abdul Wadud, and Alamin Talukdar from Jindarpur village.
It is known from conversations with the youths, the broker Sultan Mahmud, son of Abdur Rajjak from Jindarpur village, has been sending people to various countries for a long time. He is known as Mabud in the area. About three years ago, six youths from the same area, Panchgram, Molamgarihat, and Jindarpur village, made a contract with broker Mabud to go to Malaysia together for Tk. 3.3 million. They have already paid the full amount of the contract.
Six months ago they were not sent to Malaysia, the plan was to send them to Tajikistan. Those young men agreed to that plan as well. Despite some delays, on March 18th of the current year, they were taken from their homes with the purpose of sending them to Tajikistan, but they ended up in Dhaka. During the checking at the airport, manpower, visas, and BMET smart cards were manipulated by the middleman Mabud, providing them with fake documents. Only the airplane tickets were genuine. They had to return from the airport. So instead of going to their own homes, they are now stationed at the house of the middleman Sultan Mahmud.
That’s not the end, six months ago, the sons of Abdur Rahman from Atahar village of the same Upazila, Amrul Islam, the son of Mosarraf from Jindapur village, Mohsin Ali, the son of Faridul from Belgadiya village, Faysal, the son of Yunus from Maheshpur village, Rimon, and many others, including the son of the late Majid from Pangram, were sent to Malaysia by the same tactics used by middleman Mabud. Currently, they are unable to find jobs and are living in Malaysia dependent on the locals.
Upon visiting the house of the middleman Mabud, it can be seen that the six young men are sitting inside the house with their luggage tied with ropes. All the doors of the house are closed. Abdur Rajjak, the father of the middleman Mabud, and his elder brother Abdus Sobhan are present in the house. However, the middleman Sultan Mahmud is absent.
At this time, the young men say, “We are innocent. We have come directly to this house from the airport. We are stationed here.” On Wednesday night, they had a meeting with Mabud. They were sitting in Mabud’s house to find a solution, but Mabud hurriedly left the meeting.
One of the young men, Atikul Islam, said, “By keeping the land hostage, we have given everything to the middleman Mabud with 500,000 taka, and everything is over. We have been staying in this house for six days.”
Another young man, Abu Taher, said, “We did not go to Malaysia, so there is no problem. But why were we deceived with fake documents when going to Tajikistan? We no longer want to go abroad; we want our money back.”
Raja Mia, a member of Ward 4 of Jindarpur Union Parishad and a resident of that village, said, “We know everything about this. Mabud is a fraud. Those who are currently stationed are all sons of poor families.”
The middleman Sultan Mahmud, also known as Mabud, said, “I am only sending them through the agency, and they are the ones who prepared all these fake documents. They do not know anything about the fake documents. I have asked them for time to return the money.”
Officer-in-Charge (OC) Wasim Al Bari of Kalai Police Station said, “After receiving a call at 999, the police rescued them. The tortured young men were called to report the incident, but they refused to make any allegations. As there were no allegations against Mabud, he was released. If any complaint is received, legal action will be taken.”