BD rescues ‘abducted’ Rohingya

DHAKA: Bangladesh police have stopped 43 Rohingya refugees from being smuggled to Malaysia by boat with a dozen women claiming they were abducted by traffickers, officials said on Thursday.

Acting on tip-offs, police found the refugees at two separate places in the southeastern border district of Cox´s Bazar, raising the number of Rohingya being rescued from the traffickers to more than 100 in less than a week.

Rapid Action Battalion, an elite police unit, said they rescued 12 women -- mostly in their 20s -- from a residential room in Cox´s Bazar city early Thursday morning and arrested two alleged traffickers for "abducting" them. "The young women from the refugee camps were lured by the traffickers. They were promised they would be sent to Malaysia. They were then brought to Cox´s Bazar and kept in a house," RAB spokesman Mashkur Rahman said.