DHAKA: The Malaysia Police has discovered more mass graves of human trafficking victims, who were kept in cages during period of ransom negotiations with the families, and later were tortured to death if ransom is not paid.

Malaysia English daily The Sun on Friday reports the gruesome discovery of skeletal remains at the Perlis border recently may be just the tip of the iceberg.

There may be hundreds more graves in other human trafficking transit camps at the Malaysia-Thailand border in Kedah, Perak and Kelantan, according to recent police intelligence reports.

The graves that were discovered during an extensive operation along the border last week included one which was a stone’s throw away from a Thai army camp.

The search operation was ordered by police higher-ups after the discovery of 139 graves at 28 camps at Bukit Genting Perah and Bukit Wang Burma.

Sources said based on the findings, these human trafficking camps could have been there for over five years.

Human traffickers had herded illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh over the years, encroached into Malaysian territory via Thailand and set up the camps in rugged terrain along the border.

Human traffickers had allegedly “bought” their way into southern Thailand.

For the police forensics team and other personnel involved in the exhumation operation at Wang Kelian, it was perhaps the toughest task they had encountered, being both “physically and emotionally challenging”.

Sources said since the operation kicked off last month, at least one police personnel suffered injury each day while working on the steep gradient, which was further compounded by bad weather.

They also had to survive on basic food rations and having a bath was simply wishful thinking throughout the days of the two-phase operation at Wang Kelian as there was only enough water for drinking.

“The jungle was infested with mosquitoes and insects. The men also had to sleep on hillslopes buckled to each other for safety, or risk rolling down hundreds of metres,” sources told the Sun.

Police said the victims were kept in cages while ransom negotiations with the families were held. They were tortured to death if the ransom was not paid.

It is believed that except for a few who died of starvation and disease, the rest were killed with gunshots, were knifed or bludgeoned.

BDST: 1536 HRS, JUN 12, 2015
HB/RS