Recent incidents of abduction and disappearance have numbed the nation, especially because almost all these incidents are shrouded in mysteries: why these people were abducted, who abducted them, or why those who have come back alive were released – these questions have remained alive in discussions but unresolved.
In the past, families of victims would get phone calls from the kidnappers and come to settlements to get back their near ones.
But the scenario has been completely different lately, as abductors have not called the family members of their victims, demanding any ransom or any other settlements; law enforcers have also failed to trace the victims or the abductors. The victims have often returned alive only after the kidnappers released them.
According to Ain O Salish Kendra, in recent times, 16 people fell victim to “forced disappearance,” and seven of them were found dead. Around 53 people have been abducted so far this year while 68 in 2013, 56 in 2012, 59 in 2011 and 46 in 2010.
In one of the latest incidents of abduction, seven people, including a Narayanganj City Corporation ward councillor, were picked up in the district in the same way BELA chief’s husband Abu Bakar Siddique had been abducted two weeks ago.
ASM Shahjahan, former inspector general of police, yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune that incidents of such kind of criminal activities had increased as the rule of law had not been ensured properly. “The rule of law must be established and action must be taken against the culprits after proper identification, and only then such incidents will stop occurring.”
Professor Dr Zia Rahman, chairperson of the criminology department at Dhaka University, identifies three types of abduction: at the instruction of top underworld criminals; abduction caused a result of personal conflicts; and political abduction, in which case the kidnapping is conducted using the guise of law enforcers.
He pointed out that the recent abductions did not go with the first two types. “It mainly points to the third type where the abductions took place using the name of the law enforcers and no one claimed any ransom from the victims’ families.”
Dr Zia said the country had been apparently without any violence lately and there was no reason for abduction to take place.
“In this situation, it cannot be overlooked whether any third party is involved in such incidents, whether international politics is working, to portray the government as weak, thus leaving it confronted by the people,” he said. “The state must investigate any such possibility and take action accordingly.”
Advocate Elina Khan, chief executive of Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation, however, does not think that any “third party” has been behind the recent incidents. She holds responsible the failure of the law enforcers and the state behind these abductions.
She told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that there had been no chain of command among the field level police officers.
“General people are now used to thinking that the law enforcers cannot help them while criminals think that the law enforcers cannot do anything to them,” she said.
Narayanganj abduction
Supporters of Narayanganj ward 2 Councillor Nazrul Islam, who was abducted around 1:45pm on Sunday along with his four aides – Tajul, Swapan, Liton and Jahangir – from Adalatpara area of the city, yesterday blocked the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway for nearly two hours, demanding immediate rescue of the five men.
Transport movement remained suspended on the highway until the demonstrators withdrew the blockade around 12:30pm, reports our Narayanganj correspondent.
The demonstrators took to the street and blocked the highway at Mouchak point around 10:45am, said Abdul Matin, officer-in-charge of Siddhirganj police station.
Nazrul, also the former general secretary of Narayanganj Chhatra League, and his men were leaving the court premises after securing bail in a case, said Nazrul’s wife Selina Islam. They were in Nazrul’s private car when they were abducted.
Police found the car at Rajendrapur in Gazipur around 9pm on Sunday but have yet to trace the victims.
Meanwhile, lawyers of Narayanganj Ainjibi Samiti boycotted the court, demanding information on the whereabouts of abducted lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar and his driver, who had been kidnapped hours after the abduction of Nazrul and his men.
Around the time the five were kidnapped, senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar and his driver Ibrahim were abducted from the court area, family members said. Police recovered Chandan’s car from the capital’s Gulshan around 10pm yesterday.
When contacted, Nurul Islam, police super of Narayanganj, told the Dhaka Tribune that they were trying to trace the abductors and the victims.
Two abducted Gazipur brothers rescued
Gazipur Superintendent of Police Abdul Baten has claimed that they have identified the abductors and they will be arrested soon.
Dil Mohan Mondal, 45, and Kedari Mohon Mondol, 41, were rescued on April 28 from Nandan Park area around 9pm. They had been kidnapped three days before, reports our correspondent in the district.
Dil Mohan said six to seven men identifying themselves as police abducted them at gunpoint on April 25. He said their hands had been tied and they had been blindfolded and taken to an unknown place by a microbus after roaming around for an hour.
He said they had been confined to a room in a house near Nabinagar. The abductors did not torture them, nor did they demand any ransom. On Monday evening, they took the two brothers in a car and left on a road from where police rescued them.
Meanwhile, 10 people, including teachers and students, have been abducted in the past two months in Mymensingh.
Our correspondent there reports: The last incident of abduction took place in the early hours of Monday when unknown people kidnapped three people, including two teachers at gunpoint, cuffing them after breaking into their houses in Bhaluka upazila’s Pachgaon village.
Quoting locals, police said eight to 10 people broke into the house of Shamsuddin Munshi. They held the family members hostages at gunpoint and handcuffed Kamal Hossain Sabuj, 35, son of Shamsuddin and a teacher at a local coaching centre. They also picked up Abu Bakar Siddique Swapon, a cousin of Sabuj, who is also a teacher at the same coaching centre.
When family members inquired where they were taking the two, the armed men said they were taking them to the police station.
In another incident, introducing as police seven to eight armed men abducted Yusuf Ali Sohag, 18, a second year student of Mymensingh Homeopathic College and son of Kolimullah of Panibhanda village, on the night of April 19.
The same group of armed men also picked up Bashir Ahmed, Morshed Ali, and Sohel from an adjacent village the same night.
There has been no trace of the two teachers and the four youths yet.
On March 5, posing as RAB personnel, some armed people broke into the house of Asadullah of Purbapara village and took away his sons Abu Hanif, Nazmul and Sanwar in a microbus.
Officer-in-Charge of Bhaluka Model police station Rafiqul Azad said two general diaries had been lodged in connection with the incident.
The three boys were found blindfolded and lying beside a road after three days of the abduction.
In reply to a question, IGP Hassan Mahmood Khandker yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune: “Who says cases are not investigated? Investigations are underway, but yes, some are pending. The law enforcers have been trying hard and we have already brought back a few victims.”
Asked separately why abduction has been on the rise recently, both the IGP and State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan said abduction had happened in the past and it was happening now. They said there was no need to be scared as the law enforcers had been looking into the cases.