Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has detained four criminals with local weapons after discovering a ‘torture cell’ run by a gang of criminals on a hill in Cox's Bazar city. Members RAB detained the criminals during a raid.
The detainees were identified as Ujjal Das, 28; Utpal Dey, 29, son of Bantu Das; Bidhan Dhar, 30, son of the Dulal Dhor and Antar Rudra, 22, son of Kajol Rudra. All of them are from Ghonarpara area of the city.
The criminals have been using the ‘torture cell’ for a long time to torture people, including locals and tourists, after abducting them and keeping them as hostages.
Md Kamruzzaman, senior assistant director (legal and media) of RAB-15 confirmed the matter. He said that the raid was carried out in an abandoned at the old Jadiram Buddhist Monastery hill in Cox's Bazar city in the early hours on Tuesday.
Kamruzzaman said that the criminal gang is involved in mugging and abducting both locals and tourists. They have been using the abandoned home as their base of operations for a long time. After receiving tip-offs, RAB ran surveillance on this gang for a while to identify and arrest its members. The raid was carried out after RAB received information that several members of the gang were staying in that home. When the RAB team surrounded the home, six or seven people tried to flee. Of them, four were detained.
Later, RAB found sharp weapons, including one machete, three knives, two plastic sticks, a long rope and three stolen mobile phones during a search at the home, said Kamruzzaman. During preliminary interrogation, the detainees have confessed that they have been operating in Cox's Bazar town for a long time – mugging and abducting people and securing ransoms after targeting them. “They have been using the home on the Jadiram Buddhist Bihar hill as their base of operations, where they tortured people and managed to get ransoms,” said the RAB official.
A case has been filed against the four men at Cox's Bazar Sadar Police Station, he added.
