by Special Correspondent in Prothom Alo, July 5, 2017 at 19:00 hrs
Poet, writer, and political commentator Farhad Mazhar had been picked up in a microbus, blindfolded and taken to Khulna. Who abducted him and why? Similar incidents have been occurring and in most cases, fingers are being pointed at the law enforcement agencies.
At a press conference in Minto Road on Tuesday, joint commissioner of the police’s detective Abdul Baten said that Farhad Mazhar had stated that when he left his house to buy some medicine early morning on Monday, a few people picked him up and took off with him in a microbus. Baten said the police were now trying to determine the identity of the abductors.
Abdul Baten said, Farhad Mazhar told them during interrogations that he had called up his wife over his cell phone while in the microbus, and told her they would release him in exchange of Tk 3.5 million (Tk 35 lakh).
Farhad family sources said sometimes Tk 3.5 million was demanded and sometimes Tk 20 lakh. Farhad Mazhar’s family had said they would arrange the money. But the family felt that ransom was not the actual issue. It was mentioned just to confuse them.
A police officer said that Farhad Mazhar had emerged from his house at around 5:00am Monday morning when three people in a microbus picked him up at the Shyamoli intersection. They blindfolded him and made him sit on the floor of the vehicle. Two persons flanked him and forced him to keep his head down. At one point of time he called his wife over his cell phone and said, “They are taking me away. They are going to kill me.” The men snatched the phone away from him. They kept him on the microbus’ floor and threatened him.
An official of the police said that after Farhad Mazhar went missing on Monday, they managed to trace his location six times using phone tracking technology.
He was first located at Gabtoli, then Manikganj, Daulatdia ghat, Faridpur, Jessore and finally at Khulna. When orders were issued at 3:00 in the afternoon from a top level in the government, everyone became active. Surveillance was stepped up at the borders. Farhad Mazhar’s family feared he might be taken across the border.
Rescued and brought to Dhaka
RAB said that he was rescued at 11:00 pm Monday night at Abhaynagar in Jessore, from a Dhaka-bound Hanif Paribahan bus which had left from Khulna.
He was handed over to the Khulna police and later, at 8:45am Tuesday morning, brought to the Adabar police station in Dhaka.
Farhad Mazhar’s wife, daughter, and relations were waiting for him at the police station. Overcome with emotion, he held his daughter and wife close, weeping. After eating breakfast at the police station and talking to his family, he was taken to the police’s detective branch (DB) office in Minto Road. He was interrogated for two hours there.
Farhad Mazhar’s wife Farida Akhter, his daughter Samtali Huq and family friend Gautam Das were waiting outside the DB office gate in a microbus.
Farida Akhter said, “His eyes were bound till Monday evening. I gave him his blood pressure medication and a little to eat.”
At 2:30 in the afternoon, Farhad Mazhar was taken from the DB office to the court. The police officers said he was being sent to give deposition in court as a victim in the case filed with the Adabar police station.
According to our Khulna correspondent, Farhad Mazhar had his dinner at around 8:00pm at the Grill House restaurant, north of the Khulna New Market. He was wearing a white lungi, a white panjabi, with a white handkerchief carelessly wrapped around his head. The restaurant owner Abdul Mannan confirmed that he didn’t have any bag with him.
The restaurant owner told Prothom Alo, “When he entered the restaurant at around eight in the night, he looked very tired. He sat at a corner table and asked for the menu. He took his time looking through the menu and then ordered rice, dal (lentils) and vegetable. He looked devastated. He washed up, sat down with his head resting on the table and fell asleep. The waiter woke him up.”
The restaurant owner said that he ate with a spoon, but couldn’t say if he was alone or if anyone had been with him.
Jessore correspondent said that the Dhaka-bound Hanif Paribahan bus left Khulna at 9:15pm Monday night. It reached Naowapara of Abhaynagar upazila at 10:30pm. The bus was stopped in front of the Bengal Textile Mills. Abhaynagar police rang up the bus supervisor Hafizur Rahman and told him stop the vehicle. The police reached there at 11:00pm and searched the bus. At around 11:30 pm they took Farhad Mazhar off the bus. A RAB-6 team took him from the police and placed him in their vehicle. The police and RAB got into an argument over this.
RAB turned their vehicle around and started off towards Khulna. The police remained in close pursuit. Around 10 km down the road, at the orders of the police DIG, more police vehicles were sent and they set up a barricade, blocking the RAB vehicle.
Officer-in-charge (OC) of Abhaynagar police station Mohammed Anisur Rahman told Prothom Alo, “The moment Farhad Mazhar was taken off the bus, a RAB team came up and said to hand him over to them. We refused and got into an argument with them.”
The bus supervisor Hafizur Rahman said Farhad Mazhar had been sitting in seat I-3 of the coach. He had got on the bus at Shibbari in Khulna. His ticket was checked near Naowapara. It was issued in the name of ‘Mr Gafur’.
Another source said there were only three passengers on the bus, including Farhad Mazhar. It is not for certain whether the other two were of the intelligence.
After Farhad Mazhar had been rescued, Khulna police range DIG Didar Ahmed addressed a press conference at 1:20am Monday night. He said that Farhad Mazhar was found with a bag containing a mobile phone charger, a shirt and other essentials for a trip.
The police had arranged to send Farhad Mazhar to Dhaka before the police conference.http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/152921/No-answers-to-who-abduct-and-why
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