Police are yet to trace the next of kin of a boy, who was found by them in Kurigram about two weeks ago and could be the victim of a human trafficking attempt.
The eleven-year-old boy, who identified himself as Al-Amin, was picked up from the Gubtoli bus terminal in Dhaka on August 21 and left in Kurigram the following day.
Police suspect it is the handiwork of an unidentified group engaging in child trafficking, who then abandoned the boy for some unknown reasons.
“We’ve sent word to all police stations of the country, but there is no feedback yet. No one approached us claiming to know him or his next of kin,” said Azizul Haq, a sub-inspector at the Kurigram Sadar police station.
All that the police know about Al-Amin’s background is the description of his parents, siblings and area of residence, which they have obtained from the boy himself. However all this has proved to be ineffective in tracing his roots.
According to Al-Amin, he is the only son of his parents, has three sisters and had been a student of Hazrat Abu Bakar Madrasah in Gabtoli. He lived with his parents Shah Alam and Nargis who have a furniture shop called Maa Furniture.
He also said his uncle Afzal works at an iron store while his brother-in-law Rocky, married to his eldest sister Sathi, lives at a Bangla Hotel in Gabtoli. He bought a portable audio player from a local market on August 21 and was returning home when the incident occurred.
“I was about to cross the street near the Gabtoli bus stop when someone grabbed my hand and dragged me into a bus. I can’t remember what happened next,” said Al-Amin.
He had apparently travelled about 360 kilometres from Dhaka to Kurigram without knowing anything, before being rescued by a tax inspector in front of the Kurigram office of Islamic Foundation on August 22.
“It was morning and I had just come out of a local mosque after my Fajr prayer. A long-distance SP Paribahan bus (travelling between Dhaka and Kurigram) suddenly stopped and the conductor dropped him off in front of me,” said former inspector Abdul Khaleq.
“The conductor told me to take the boy home which he said was at a little distance from there. But that isn’t true,” Khaleq mentioned, adding he had lodged a general diary with the police in this connection.
The boy is now living at the house of his rescuer in the Kurigram town.
The mystery surrounding the boy seems to be deepening. Khaleq said the whereabouts of the boy’s parents and relatives could not be discovered at the places described by Al-Amin.
Even the authorities of Hazrat Abu Bakar Madrasah, of which Al-Amin claimed he had been a student, could not verify his identity.
