A Swechchhasebak League leader in Dhaka has been abducted because he campaigned for an Awami League-backed candidate ahead of the recent city polls, his family claims.
Forty-year-old KM Arman, the social welfare secretary of Swechchhasebak League's Dhaka South unit, went missing on Wednesday night from the city's Dainik Bangla intersection.
His wife, Nigar Sultana, said her husband had been kidnapped by a rival candidate over conflicts surrounding the city corporation polls.
She quoted witnesses as saying some unidentified men forced Arman into a white microbus around 8:30pm on Wednesday near Dainik Bangla intersection.
“Before this, I called his cell phone around 8pm, but he did not answer. Not getting any response [for a while], I called his office and an office staff told me that Arman had gone to Dainik Bangla area after receiving a phone call.”
Nigar said she immediately went and filed a general diary with Motijheel police station. The police soon started tracking Arman's mobile phone and found it was located near Kakrail area; however, its exact position could not be traced. The phone signal shows that it was still turned on at the Pioneer Road area in Kakrail, she added.
The wife said Arman had campaigned for newly elected AL-backed ward Councillor Mominul Haque Sayed in Arambagh, adding that the abduction might have been the result of election disputes between Mominul and his rival candidate, BNP-backed Anowar Hossain.
Nigar added that Arman, a highway contractor and a C&F businessman, had received a death threat over the phone three months ago.
Contacted, BM Forman Ali, officer-in-charge of Motijheel police station, told the Dhaka Tribune that a GD had been filed and they were now looking into the issue.
