Liakat's four brothers and one sister claim he is mentally unstable, while locals say they have neglected his mental health to expropriate his property.
When this correspondent visited him in the tin roof house where he has reportedly been locked since 2001, Liakat was found standing half-naked, holding the window bars and wearing nothing but a round necked, full sleeved black T-shirt.
He is forced to sleep, eat and even defecate inside the same dark room, which has become filthy and reeks of foul odour.
Liakat is the fifth among the six children of the late Bahram Ali from Bikramkalas village in Moulvibazar's Kamalganj upazila.
Liakat passed his Alim exam from the local madrasa in 1997 at the age of 16, and married a woman from his village soon after.
However, when his wife left him a few days after the wedding, Liakat became mentally ill at the end of the year, his family members said.
Although his brothers live together as a joint family and are financially solvent enough to provide medical attention for Liakat, they have refused to do so.
On condition of anonymity, some neighbors and locals claimed that Liakat's brothers kept him in chains for nearly 12 years to prove his supposed mental disorder.
The family refused to provide medical attention to Liakat
Dhaka TribuneAiyub Ali, Liakat's elder brother, claimed that Liakat had been ill for the last 16 years.
“We repeatedly tried for his recovery through proper treatment, but to no avail. Our attempts to help him return to a normal life have failed,” he added, claiming that they had arranged for Liakat's treatment by specialist psychiatrists Dr Khalikuzzaman and Dr RKS Royel.
Despite their treatment, Liakat remained mentally ill, resulting in his treatments being discontinued, said Aiyub Ali.
When asked about Liakat's imprisonment in chains, his brother Jamshed Ali, a Dubai expatriate, defended their actions claiming that they never intended it to happen.
“Liakat became uncontrollable and hurt others around him whenever he was freed, so we had to chain him for the sake of others' safety,” he said, adding that Liakat tore away his clothes.
“Since the cost of treatment at the Pabna Mental Hospital is very expensive, we could not afford to send Liakat there,” he said.
But their neighbours believe that Liakat could have recovered had he been treated well and cared for.
“Liakat is in his current state because of lack of proper treatment,” said one of the locals, requesting not to be named.
