Police detain four with 47 human skulls, bones

Police detained four youths linked to an alleged human bone trafficking ring, and seized 47 skulls as well as a large number of other bones from their possession.

The raids were conducted on Monday night in three parts of the capital: Manipuripara in Tejgaon, Tejgaon College area and Uttara Pashim Police Station area.

Mohammad Ibn Mizan, deputy commissioner at Tejgaon Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, announced the raids at a press briefing held at DMP media centre on Tuesday noon.

The detainees are: Kazi Jahirul Islam alias Soumik, 25, Md Faisal Ahammed, 26, Asadul Munshi alias Jashim alias Ershad, 32, and Md Abul Kalam, 39.

The four are members of a seven-member group that collect human skeletons from abandoned, poorly monitored and unnamed graves from different parts of the capital. They sale the skeletons for Tk15,000-Tk20,000 to medical students across the capital.

They are also part of an online group of illegal skeleton traders that has 700 active traders and 20,000 general members.

On Monday night, acting on a tip-off, police detained Kazi Jahirul Islam, a final-year student of Sapporo Dental College and Hospital in Uttara, from near Gate No 1 at Manipuripara.

Officers recovered one skeleton from him.

Based on the information provided by him, police detained Asadul Munshi alias Jashim alias Ershad and Md Abul Kalam from in front of Tejgaon College front gate and recovered two more skeletons. Md Abul Kalam was previously implicated in 21 cases of illegal skeleton trade and drug trafficking. Ershad is accused in two cases, said Deputy Commissioner Ibn Mizan at the press conference.

The three were brought to the Tejgaon Police Station for further initial interrogation. The three confessed that their ring leader is an intern doctor residing at the hostel of Sapporo Dental College and Hospital in Uttara Sector 9.

Police raided the room of the fourth detainee, Md Faisal Ahammed, at the college hostel and recovered another 44 skeletons, the officer added.