Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday claimed that indigenous criminal groups were behind the abduction of two tourists and their guide in Bandarban on Saturday, contradicting news reports that the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) demanded ransom for their release.
“A number of small ethnic groups live in our [Chittagong] Hill Tracts area. In primary investigation, we have found that the criminals belong to those groups are involved in the abduction.
“They will be rescued soon. The army officials are working to rescue them,” the minister told reporters at his office.
However, Passing Mro, brother of missing guide Mangsai Mro, told the Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday that the local commander of the ALP, a separatist rebel group of Myanmar, had called him and asked Tk50 lakh as ransom.
Munna, 35, and Zubayer, 28, both residents of Dhaka’s Mirpur, and Mangsai went missing in Raikkhong Pukur Para of Ruma upazila in Bandarban.
Local sources said a 10-member armed team of the ALP, clad in uniforms similar to that of the Bangladesh Army, abducted the three on Saturday and took them to their den in the deep remote forest near Myanmar border.
Locals say the ALP members and some other Myanmar separatist groups have been involved in extortion in Ruma area for several years.
In August, army and BGB launched a joint raid in Bandarban after the members of Arakan Army launched attack on a BGB camp in Thanchi area.
During the press conference, the home minister also said that the fugitive ruling party lawmaker from Gaibandha’s Sundarganj, Manjurul Islam Liton, would be arrested if he did not surrender before the court.
Manjurul, allegedly under the influence of alcohol, shot an eight-year-old boy thrice at Brac intersection of Sundarganj on October 2.
The minister also echoed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy to blame the BNP-Jamaat nexus for the murders of two foreign nationals. Asked about the basis of the claim, Kamal said that the premier and her son had analysed the current situation of the country before accusing BNP-Jamaat men of killing the duo.
