Though the ordeal of being kidnapped left Farhad Mazhar in “heavy trauma,” he said he cannot be silenced by the experience.
During an interview with UK-based The Guardian from his BIRDEM hospital bed on Wednesday, he also vowed to continue to campaign against human rights abuses and enforced disappearance.
Mazhar said he was unsure who had allegedly abducted him from a street near his home at about 5am last week.
Farhad Mazhar at Adabor police station on Tuesday, July 4, 2017 morning
Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka TribuneAccording to him, the men blindfolded Mazhar and took his phone. Believing if he called his wife again, police could track his location, he offered to pay the men a ransom to release him.
“They gave me the mobile and I spoke to my wife a few times on the issue,” he said.
“The bus kept travelling for hours. They abused me, throwing foul language at me sometimes. They also slapped me,” he said. “Around 10 or 12 hours later, the men said they would release me. They took off the blindfold and dropped me at a secluded place when it was a little dark.
“They gave me a bus ticket and asked me to take the bus from Khulna city to go back to Dhaka. I walked some distance and reached a market in Khulna, where I had some food before boarding the bus at 9.15 pm,” he said.
Farhad Mazhar, along with his family members, are being escorted to Detective Branch office in Dhaka's Minto road from Adabor police station on Tuesday,
July 4, 2017
Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka TribuneMazhar says he has no idea who was responsible for his kidnapping. “My abductors were in plain clothes. I don’t know who they were or which group they belonged to,” he said.
“I made several phone calls to my wife while I was captive. Police could locate my position from my calls after the microbus left Dhaka, I found out later. I am surprised why police could not intercept the microbus well before it reached Khulna.”
Dhaka Metropolitan Police are investigating the case but high officials have told local media they are skeptical of Mazhar’s account.
Human Rights Watch released a report last week alleging the Bangladesh government had secretly detained hundreds of people, mostly activists and political figures opposed to the ruling Awami League government. The New York-based watchdog said at least 90 people had been detained in secret jails last year. Most were eventually produced before a court, but it documented 21 cases of detainees who were killed, and nine others whose whereabouts are still unknown.
Dhaka, however, rejected the report’s finding, and accused HRW of spreading “propaganda”.