Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in JS that there are legal complications in bringing BNP Acting Chairman Tariq Rahman, who was convicted in multiple cases including the August 21 grenade attack, back to the country from the United Kingdom.

She said this in response to a written question by Member of Parliament Farida Yasmin during the question and answer session of the 2024-25 budget session of the Jatiya Sangsad on Wednesday (June 26). Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury presided over the session.

The Prime Minister said that there are some legal complications regarding the return of accused Tariq Rahman, who was convicted in multiple cases including the August 21 grenade attack, from the UK. However, the government is determined to resolve all the complications in the legal process and bring this criminal to the country and face the punishment he deserves. Hopefully, we will be able to see the results of this process soon.

Sheikh Hasina said that accused Tariq Rahman, who was convicted in several cases of corruption including the August 21 grenade attack, money laundering, is currently staying in the United Kingdom. Diplomatic efforts and legal proceedings are ongoing to bring him back. The related offices of the government including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are working by maintaining close communication with the UK government.

In August 21 grenade attack, including Tariq Rahman, 15 accused are currently absconding, the head of government said, efforts to arrest the absconding accused are continuing. Maulana Tajuddin, Md. Haris Chowdhury(reported in the media to have died on Bangladesh soil) and Ratul Ahmed Babu alias Ratul Babu. Also, efforts are being made to bring back the fugitive convicts through talks with the countries where they are staying. Various steps are being taken in this regard from the higher level of the government. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself has sent several letters to the Heads of State and Government of the concerned countries at various times asking for cooperation in bringing the murderers back to the country, informed the JS. She said she also sought personal cooperation in meeting them at international forums.

The Prime Minister said that due to the legal complications regarding the location of the killers in the respective countries, the expected progress has not been made in this regard. In order to bring the murderers back to the country, measures are being taken according to the laws of the respective countries along with the current diplomacy.

Sheikh Hasina said that a red notice has been issued through Interpol to bring back the fugitive accused in the Bangabandhu murder case and execute the sentence. In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Law and Home Affairs and other related institutions are working in coordination with each other.

She also said that among the fugitive killers of Bangabandhu, Major (Retd) Noor Chowdhury and his family are in Canada, Abdur Rashid and Major (Retd) Shariful Islam Dalim are in Pakistan or Libya, Lt Col (Retd) Rashed Chowdhury in America and Resaldar Mosleh Uddin Khan in India. It is known to be doing. In addition, Lt. Colonel (retd) Aziz Pasha is said to have died during his stay in Zimbabwe.

The Prime Minister also said that out of the 12 convicts sentenced to death in the Bangabandhu murder case, 6 have been executed.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Hasan Mahmud said that the government has signed a new memorandum of understanding with India by preserving the interests of Bangladesh.

He said this in response to a question regarding BNP's negative comments on the Prime Minister's recent visit to India during an exchange of views with journalists at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday (June 26) afternoon.

The minister said that the BNP secretary general is commenting without understanding the difference between the agreement and the memorandum of understanding. Their job is to oppose the government for no reason.

Terming the relationship with India as mutually prestigious, the foreign minister said, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for a visit as the first head of government after forming the government for the third time. India is our faithful friend. The way India has helped us in our liberation war, the way their soldiers have given their lives, the way they have given shelter to our nearly one crore people, our relationship with them is inseparable.

He said when BNP was in power, they could not maintain relations with their neighbors. BNP leader Begum Zia herself said that she forgot to talk about the Ganga Treaty when she went to India and that we are getting water because Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signed the Ganga Treaty in 1996.

The foreign minister said that today, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the relationship between the two countries has reached a new height, as a result of which we are able to import hydropower from Nepal through the transmission line over India, discussions are also going on with Bhutan. India lifted its ban on onion exports to Bangladesh ahead of Eid-ul-Azha this year due to ties.

At that time, in response to a question about 'connectivity' with India, Dr. Hasan Mahmud said that Dhaka-Kolkata, Khulna-Kolkata rail connectivity exists. Along with India, work is going on to develop regional rail and road connectivity including Nepal and Bhutan.

He said that the contact of various parts of India with the bordering areas of Bangladesh has been going on for a long time. After 1965, many contacts ceased. They are being restarted.

The national flag carrier Bangladesh Airlines is suffering from pilot crisis. Due to the shortage of pilot, apart from conducting regular flights, they are not able to start flights on new routes or increase the number of flights on existing routes. Due to this, despite the desire of the airline, it is not able to increase the number of flights even on profitable routes.

Currently, the number of pilots in the aircraft is 186 people. But they need about 250 pilots. That means the national flag carrier is still short of more than 60 pilots.

Biman recently issued another notification to overcome the aviation crisis. However, the exact number of people to be taken this time has not been specified.

Earlier, Biman had advertised for 18 pilots for the Dreamliner 787. But only 16 applications were submitted. After all the process, only 4 pilots joined. In just two months, three people left the airline again.

In December 2022, the national flag carrier issued a recruitment notification for pilots for Boeing 777, 787 and 737 model aircraft, soon after outgoing Biman Managing Director Shafiul Azim joined the airline. The recruitment process of this notification in March has not yet been completed.

Before the end of the recruitment process, Biman already started flights to Narita, Guangzhou, Chennai and Rome. After the departure of Shafiul Azim last May, Biman has not yet completed the recruitment of pilots. But Biman started flights on four new routes with the previous pilots.

An airline pilot told this reporter on the condition of anonymity that pilots are losing interest in Biman jobs. This is mainly because the financial package is not competitive. Biman, however, feels that the financial package is not the only issue. There are other reasons for this.

Biman’s recruitment process is quite complex as it involves different interests, which is a big problem. There are also some other issues with this; which cannot be explained. Airmen are employed on permanent, contractual and some other basis.

Anyway, Biman is recruiting cadet pilots to solve aviation problems. Moreover, if Biman buys 26 more aircraft by 2034, it will need at least 300 new pilots. Apart from Biman, other private airlines require about 40 pilots.

An official of Biman said on condition of anonymity that it is difficult for a large airline like Biman to operate flights with so many pilots vacant for a long time.

Biman's General Manager (PR) Bosra Islam sent a written query on WhatsApp seeking her comment on the matter, but she did not respond. 

A gang used to target young women of rising age on social media and lure them with advertisements in the name of attractive salary jobs, talent hunting and modeling. They were then blackmailed with private photos and forced into online body trade. The Criminal Investigation Department of Police (CID's Cyber Police Center) has arrested 8 people, including the ringleader, for using them as modern-day sex slaves by trapping hundreds of young women in a very clever way.

The arrested are- the ringleader and medical student. Mehdi Hasan (25) and his main associate cousin Sheikh Zahid bin Sujan (26), Md. Zahid Hasan Kankan (28), Tanveer Ahmed alias Deepta (26), Syed Hasibur Rahman (27), Shadat Al Muiz (29), Sushmita Akhtar alias Poppy (27) and Naina Islam (24).

On Tuesday (June 25) raids were conducted in different areas of Dhaka, Satkhira, Chandpur and Jashore and they were arrested. Meanwhile, 12 mobile phones, 20 SIM cards, 1 laptop used for making pornography and blackmailing young women and ATM cards and check books of various banks were seized from them.

Additional IGP Mohammad Ali Mia gave this information at a press conference organized at the CID headquarters in Malibagh in the capital on Wednesday (June 26) afternoon.

He said that a gang is using social media to open fake Facebook IDs and pages to get freelancing jobs, lucrative jobs, modeling, talent scouting, by taking offensive photos and videos from young women and forcing them into prostitution through black mail. Find CID. The gang mainly targeted young women of rising age who suffered from family breakdown and financial problems. The circle used to call for interviews in the name of job opportunities. After that, he would take offensive pictures by telling them to give them opportunities in various advertisements. Initially, they met the needs and money of young women who were interested in work. Then gradually they forced to do anti-social work.

Main culprit Mehdi Hasan and his cousin Sheikh Zahid bin Sujan formed this circle. They are both medical students. They ensnared young women under the guise of medical treatment and sexually assaulted them as well as creating adult content and forcing them to do various anti-social acts on Telegram, WhatsApp and Messenger. In the last 7 years they have earned around Tk. 100 crores. With this money, they purchased a large amount of land in Jashore, Satkhira, Khulna and Dhaka. They built a luxurious house. Information about depositing huge amounts of money in the bank accounts of their relatives has also been found.

How the cycle worked

In the beginning, the circle used to advertise jobs through Facebook and other social media, sometimes make models, sometimes organize competitions called 'talent hunt'. Telegram groups were opened with those who responded. Then the gang used to take offensive pictures of the girls by developing good relations with them and sending them to foreign buyers. They used to force them to make nude video calls or do gross anti-social acts under the threat of going viral. The circle has thousands of subscribers in its Telegram group. Who used to join those groups with a certain amount. The cycle kept all the video calls secret. The girls were then forced by the gang to force the victims to have sex. This is how the gang turned hundreds of young women into modern sex slaves. After a long investigation, the Cyber Police Center of the CID was able to identify the mastermind of this cycle and his main associates.

Preliminary investigation by CID revealed that the gang has a strong network in the country and abroad. Their hundreds of channels with different names have hundreds of thousands of subscribers. The gang earned around Rs 100 crore by forcing women of various ages into video calls and body trade and selling the secretly recorded videos. They used MFS or Mobile Financial Services for money transactions. In addition, thousands of dollars of their transactions in crypto currencies were also found.

This gang also knows all the tricks to hide themselves from the law and order forces. As a result, despite using hundreds of mobile SIMs, none of them are registered with real National ID. In this case, they took advantage of the ignorance of low income people. Sim card was withdrawn with little money. There were Telegram premium accounts and various paid cloud services for content sharing and subscription. These two cute young medical students have thousands of women in their custody. There is also TikTok, Facebook, Instagram celebrity. About 10 lakh nude pictures and 20 thousand adult videos secretly recorded on mobile phones and laptops of the accused were found.

A case has been registered under the Pornography Act and the Cyber Security Act at the Paltan police station against the arrested gang.