KUWAIT CITY, Aug 20: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Bangladesh Tuesday night arrested the alleged ringleader of a Kuwait based human trafficking ring.

The man identified as A.H. alias Sirajuddin was picked up from Narsingdi’s Madhabdi upazil in Bangladesh, reports Al- Rai daily quoting https:// www.dhakatribune.com.

The daily added, the suspect was arrested after the Kuwaiti intelligence authorities provided the much-needed information about the suspect’s activities.

According to Bangladeshi CID sources, four suspects were sending people to Kuwait from various states in the region, including Bangladesh, for a long time and of the four, AH with two others are Bangladeshis, said a report.

The gang, led by AH, has sent more than 900 Bangladeshis to Kuwait and each of them allegedly paid 600,000 Bangladeshi taka (approximately 2,200 Kuwaiti dinars) or more from each person.

After arriving in Kuwait, these Bangladeshis realized that all the promises of good jobs and high salaries given to them were mere dreams and that they were forced to live without a roof for shelter or food, the CID sources said. CID officials said AH and his associates got forged visas from the Kuwaiti authorities with the help of human traffickers in Kuwait.

The Assistant Superintendent of Police (CID branch) Jishan Ul Haque said, the three Bangladeshi human traffickers, including AH have been sentenced to three years in prison by a Kuwaiti court. They were also fined an unidentified sum of money, but somehow the trio managed to slip from the country and returned to Bangladesh.

The senior police official added, one Kuwaiti who was the ring leader of the gang and operated from Kuwait is currently at the Central Prison in Kuwait. “Recently the Bangladeshi CID launched an investigation into the matter on the basis of information provided by Kuwaiti intelligence and on Tuesday night was able to arrest AH. He is being interrogated and efforts are ongoing to arrest the other members of the gang,” added Ul Haque.