IGP: Farhad Mazhar faked his abduction to embarrass government

Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque has said columnist Farhad Mazhar staged his own abduction, aiming to embarrass the government and make some money. “Mazhar was not abducted, rather he left Dhaka and returned of his own volition,” the IGP said at a press briefing on Thursday at the police headquarters in Dhaka. Farhad Mazhar on July 4 told a Dhaka court that the abductors had given him a ticket of a Dhaka-bound bus. “But our findings say Mazhar himself bought the ticket for Hanif Paribahan. He visited the New Market area in Khulna from 4:21pm to 6:28pm. It seems that he was not abducted,” the IGP said, claiming they have enough evidence of what the columnist had done while in Khulna. “Analysing the information gathered so far, we found that Mazhar was not kidnapped. His whimsical movement in Khulna proves that he had been there willingly,” Shahidul further said. Terming the allegation raised by what he called a vested quarter baseless, the IGP said some people were spreading propaganda involving the government, the prime minister, and a neighbouring country with secret agencies in the incident. Farhad Mazhar, the police boss said, had been using two SIM cards. Until he was rescued, Mazhar made ten phone calls to his wife Farida Akhter using one of the SIM cards, while he talked to another woman six times from the other SIM card, Shahidul said. The woman used to live in Bhatara area of Dhaka before she shifted to Chittagong, he said, adding, she was an employee at Farhad Mazhar’s NGO Ubinig. According to the IGP, Farhad Mazhar had become very anxious after talking to her over phone before the alleged abduction. Arriving in Khulna, he had sent Tk15,000 to the woman in two installments, he said. “Since her link to Farhad Mazhar before and after the incident strongly came into the spotlight, it became necessary to record her statement,” he said. The woman, in a judicial statement on Monday, admitted mobile phone conversations with the pro-BNP columnist on the day of his alleged abduction. The woman, whose name has still not revealed for the sake of the probe, said she had known him for nearly 10 years. The IGP also said Farhad Mazhar had asked his wife to remove her Facebook status mentioning his abduction. Mazhar had then also told Farida that the abductors would release him, he claimed. Responding to a query on whether police have any idea as to how Farhad left Dhaka, the police chief said: “We think he left Dhaka on a bus. Police set up check posts in all the districts where his location was traced and all the microbuses were checked. But we did not find him in any of those.” Replying to another query about whether Farhad was carrying a bag or not, the IGP said he confessed to carrying a bag when he was produced at court. The IGP also added that they will verify whether Farhad Mazhar had lied, and if found to be true, necessary action will be taken against him. On the morning of July 3, Farhad went out for an early walk and then phoned his wife saying he had been kidnapped and the abductors were demanding Tk35 lakh. Later in the night, he was rescued from Abhaynagar upazila in Jessore and brought to Dhaka. Meanwhile, Farida could not be reached over the phone despite repeated attempts to contact her throughout the incident. When contacted, Shima Das Shimu, a relative of Farhad, said: “The recent police investigation left us tensed and panicked.” In the latest development, Farhad Mazhar was taken back home from the Birdem Hospital in Dhaka on Wednesday, where he was admitted after his rescue. A doctor of the hospital, requesting for anonymity, said he was quite well and there were no serious problems with his mental health or physique.