Enticed by traffickers, six men from Narsingdi died while trying to illegally enter Malaysia by sea. The traffickers slit their abdomens and then dumped the bodies in the sea.
Of a group of eight, Kawsar Mia, Mohsin Mia, Asad Mia, Motaleb Mia, Masum Mia and Jahangir Mia were murdered, and the remaining two phoned the families of these six after reaching Malaysia on Thursday night, informing them of the deaths.
The six families were overwhelmed with grief on hearing this news.
On April 28, Hashem Mia and Aminul, along with the six, left home to illegally enter Malaysia, in search of fortune. Traffickers kept them for several days in Cox’s Bazar before starting off for Malaysia.
On Thursday night, Hashem Mia called his mother Jamela Khatun from Malaysia and said of all the passengers on the ship, nearly 25-26, including his uncle Jahangir, had died of an acute shortage of food and water.
Four days after reaching Malaysia and recovering from illness, Aminul called his family and said the traffickers threw all the bodies of those who had died during the journey, off the ship and took the others to Malaysia.
“My son worked at Sujon Textile, a local mill. He was just fine with his wife and two children. He suddenly left home on April 28 and called the next day, saying he, along with three others, would voyage to Malaysia with Afaz Uddin, a trafficker in Araihazar,” recalled Asad Mia’s father Shahid Mia.
“He then hung up. We called the trafficker and he said all of them were fine. He also demanded Tk2-2.5 lakh from each of the families. In the meantime, however, we received the sad news,” he added.
Locals said more than a total of 1,000 people in the area had left home to illegally journey to Malaysia and more than 200 of them still remain missing. In the recent past, Dulal Mia made such a treacherous journey but succumbed to hunger on the way. The issue was settled by a village court and the trafficker paid Dulal’s family Tk2.50 lakh in fines.
Jahangir Badsha, in charge of the Madhabdi investigation centre in Narsingdi, said no complaint had been lodged by any of the six families in connection with the deaths.
“We will take legal action after receiving complaints. The traffickers were arrested in the past but they returned to the same profession after securing release on bail,” he added.