Law enforcers have rescued as many as 84 Rohingyas including women and children from Cox’s Bazar when they were being trafficked to Malaysia.
The rescue was made during separate raids at the district’s St Martin’s Island and Pekua Upazila.
In St Martin’s Island, a patrol team of Coast Guard rescued 17 Rohingyas and detained five traffickers detained from the Dakshin Beach area on Friday (May 17) night.
Lt Commander BNM Hamidul Islam, Coastguard’s assistant director (intelligence) said they raided the area after being tipped off about a human trafficking attempt.
Seven of the rescued Rohingyas are women and the rest men.
The rescued were handed over to authorities of Rohingya camps while Teknaf police took legal actions against the traffickers.
In Pekua, police rescued as many as 62 Rohingyas including 28 women and 13 children around 1:30am on Saturday.
Informed by locals, police rescued the Rohingyas, who had gathered there to board a Malaysia-bound engine boat, at a jetty in Ujantiya area, said Pekua police OC Zakir Hossain.
Some Rohingyas and the crew of the boat managed to escape, said Hossain adding the rescued Rohingyas came from Cox’s Bazar’s Kutupalong refugee capm.
They were in the Pekua police custody, said the OC.