In a joint operation, the Bangladesh Coast Guard and Navy rescued 25 Bangladeshi and Rohingya women and children in a remote hilly area near Baharchhara Jumma Para in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar.
Two human traffickers were detained during the operation.
Bangladesh Coast Guard media officer Lieutenant Commander Siam-ul-Haq confirmed the information in a press release on Tuesday morning.
Siam-ul-Haq said that based on intelligence information and the interrogation of previously arrested traffickers, a joint operation was conducted in the hilly area from 2 pm to 5 pm on Monday.
During the operation, 25 people, including women and children, were rescued from the traffickers’ secret hideout.
Those rescued said they were lured with promises of a better life, high-paying jobs abroad, and the chance to go to Malaysia at a low cost. They said both Bangladeshi and Rohingya individuals were kept hostage in a secret hideout in the deep hills of Teknaf for trafficking to Malaysia.
They also said that the traffickers were planning to smuggle them to Malaysia and were even attempting to extort ransom through torture.
Siam-ul-Haq said that operations against human trafficking would continue and that legal action against the rescued and arrested individuals was underway.
Earlier, on 30 October, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Bangladesh Coast Guard rescued 50 Rohingya, including women, men, and children, in separate anti-trafficking operations in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar.
In addition, on 28 October, RAB and Coast Guard rescued another 50 Rohingya, including women, men, and children, in separate operations in the hills and coastal areas of Shilkhali and Jumma Para in the same union.
In the past month, joint operations by RAB, police, Coast Guard, Navy, and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have rescued at least 478 people, including women, men, and children, from various hilly and coastal areas along the Teknaf border and arrested 53 members of human trafficking groups.
