TEBARIA, Bangladesh — Five days after his kidnapping, the body of 6-year-old Harun-ur-Rashid was discovered dumped in wetlands near Sirajganj, north of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. The child’s kidneys were cut out — a victim of the country’s black market organ trade.  After Harun disappeared from the village of Tebaria on April 22, the boy’s father, Abdul Hannan, feared the worst and contacted authorities.  One arrested suspect told police Harun was drugged before being taken under a bridge where three waiting men had arrived from Dhaka. The suspect said a surgeon performed the operation on the spot, according to local media reports.  “Five days later [police] called to say they had found his body near another village,” Abdul Hannan recounted. “I went to collect him and could see where they had cut into his back.”  He held a small poster from the funeral, with a chubby-faced toddler looking out. The most recent photograph of Harun was 3 years old. Hannan said he would remember his son as a happy child. “My heart is tearing,” he cried. “What can I say? If I could show you my heart, you would understand. They have destroyed our family and destroyed our happiness.”  The people of Tebaria live in the crushing poverty of rural Bangladesh and in fear of local banditry. Some described lawlessness — accentuated by ineffective and corrupt local authorities — and said 15 local children were killed the same way as Harun in the past year. Dhaka's police department did not respond to a request for comment.  “It’s a very dangerous situation here, and we can’t trust the people who do these crimes will face justice. Nothing will happen to the kidnappers,” said Kulshed Alom, a member of a local community watch program.  Three local men were arrested for the kidnapping, but there remained no news on any search for the Dhaka syndicate members. As a laborer unable to afford a lawyer and the time away from work, Hannan said he had couldn’t pursue a criminal case and was certain his son’s killers would not face justice.  “They should be hanged by the rope, those who killed my child,” he said. “I don’t want to see other parents in the same condition as my family. This story shouldn’t be repeated.”  The Bangladeshi judiciary is rife with nepotism and embezzlement and lacks independence, according to U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, a Norwegian research body. This has allowed the black market trade in human organs to flourish, according to Monir Moniruzzaman, an anthropology professor at Michigan State University who has spent the past 12 years researching the trade’s commodification and exploitation of poor Bangladeshis.  In addition to people being kidnapped and their organs stolen, some willingly sell their organs on the black market through local brokers who contact regional and national syndicates to facilitate medical procedures and find buyers for kidneys and livers. Desperation, combined with a lack of law enforcement, enables brokers to entice impoverished Bangladeshis with offers of easy money.  “If there was genuine concern on the government’s part we would see some action, but we haven’t seen anything,” Moniruzzaman said. “The law is not being enforced, and on the criminal justice side there are reports of cases being deliberately weakened.”  In August 2011 revelations emerged of a trafficking ring based in Joypurhat district, near the Indian border. Police arrested local brokers and extended investigations to the Dhaka-based syndicates. It was revealed that more than 50 people in neighboring villages had sold kidneys or parts of their livers. While the cases brought attention to the trade, only local brokers were arrested. Promised legislative reforms and police cases stalled. Under the Organ Transplant Act, passed in 1999, violators can face sentences of three to seven years in prison and fines of 300,000 taka (about $3,850).  “The police did a great job to expose these brokers in Bangladesh and their extended networks in India,” Moniruzzaman said. “But these brokers were released on parole and are now back in their areas and selling organs just like before. There is no repercussion for them, which indicates brokers are most likely paying money [to police or government authorities] so they can continue to run their businesses.”  Bangladeshi police did not respond to multiple requests to respond to accusations of corruption and complicity in the trade.  To villagers, it seems obvious where the power lies.
Residents of poor rural village of Tebaria say 15 children were kidnapped and killed by organ traffickers in past year