BANGLADESHI security forces said on Saturday they had arrested the alleged leader of a gang responsible for amputating the limbs of children and forcing them into begging.
Omar Faruq, 30, was arrested on Friday in a Dhaka suburb, said Colonel Zia Ahsan of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
‘He has admitted that his gang has amputated limbs of at least 15 children and forced them into begging in Dhaka and several other district towns. They have also raped girls to force them into prostitution,’ Mr Ahsan told AFP.
The mutilated children are rented out for up to 400 taka (six dollars) a day, to women who take them begging at busy intersections. ‘The women work as guards … posing as the children’s mothers,’ Mr Ahsan said.
The RAB was informed of the gang’s activities after Faruq’s men allegedly cut off the penis of a seven-year-old boy, Neyamul, whose father took up the case with local human rights groups.
Bangladesh approved new laws last year to tackle ‘beggar masters,’ providing penalties of at least three years’ imprisonment for anyone involved in coercing people into begging. According to a 2005 study, Bangladesh has 700,000 beggars, with those in urban areas earning an average of 100 taka (S$2.84) a day.
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