Myanmar rerun in Cambodia: 5 Karimnagar youths rescued

HYDERABAD: While scores of Indian techies held hostage in Myanmar forests by clandestine firms are being forced to do online fraud, a similar horror story just ended for Telangana residents trapped in Cambodia. Five Karimnagar youths lured into taking up jobs in the south-east Asian country were rescued and they returned home on Thursday.
Like in Myanmar, Chinese nationals were kingpins, who sold the Karimnagar youth for $2,700 each and forced them to run their online con business. As the hostage crisis worsened, the five sent a video to their families detailing their ordeal. Police were tipped off on September 19 and they swiftly set up a task force to investigate how youths were lured and trapped in Cambodia, said Karimnagar police commissioner V Satyanarayana.

The youth told police they were pressurized to do fraudulent online work, including luring the gullible to invest in cryptocurrency and gaming and indulge in credit card fraud. When they wanted to break free and return to India, they faced torture. On Thursday, police got through to agents who trafficked the youth to Cambodia and ordered them to release the Karimnagar youths.
Those who returned home on Thursday included Shahbaz Khan, 27, Shah Rukh Khan, 26, Saleem Mohammed, 36, and Haji Baba, 26, and Nawab Abdul, 34, of Rajanna Sircilla district. They were recruited to work in a casino, but were diverted into fraudulent activity, said police. Task Force ACP Vijayasaradhi, who took up the case, got through to the agents and directed them to free the youth and allow them to travel to India. Police commissioner V Satyanarayana urged job-seekers to check antecedents of companies and be cautious about accepting job offers.
Meanwhile, the hostage crisis in Myanmar jungles exacerbated with a Karimnagar techie informing TOI about a Kerala youth being brutally thrashed after he refused to do illegal work.