Police have arrested three members of a wildlife trafficking ring in Gazipur and recovered an endangered tokay gecko. The three were arrested with the gecko in the Outpara area under Gazipur Metropolitan Police's Basan police station at about 11am on Wednesday, 21 December.

The arrested are Masud Rana, 53, son of Moharram Ali of Balashpur village under Kotwali police station in Mymensingh district, a tenant in Bachhir Mondal's house in Outpara under Basan police station; Idris Ali, 48, son of A Motaleb of Jibannagar police station in Chuadanga district, a tenant in Kaila Mia's house in Tek Kathora under the Sadar police station of Gazipur city; and Shahin Alam, 42, son of the late Abul Hashem of Shibpur village in Noakhali district, a resident of the Bhogra area under Basan police station. A case has been filed with Basan police station.

The information was given at a press conference in the conference room of Gazipur Metropolitan Police headquarters at noon on Wednesday.

At the press conference, deputy commissioner Abu Toraf Mohammad Samsur Rahman said that, acting on a tip-off that traffickers were in Outpara intending to smuggle a tokay gecko abroad for sale, police raided the area in front of Siddique Haji's furniture shop and arrested the three with a gecko. He said they had long been bringing geckos from Chattogram and trafficking them in various parts of Gazipur city. The case was filed under sections 25-B/25-D of the Special Powers Act 1974 together with sections 34(B)/41 of the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act 2012.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.