Potential chairman candidate, 2 others abducted within 5 hrs

Potential chairman candidate in the upcoming Singra upazila elections Delowar Hossain, his brother and one other were allegedly abducted within just five hours in Natore today, Monday. The families of the abducted blame another chairman candidate Lutful Habib for the incident.

Lutful Habib the joint general secretary of upazila Awami League and chairman of the Sherkol union. He is also the brother-in-law of state minister for information, communication and technology Zunaid Ahmed.

This correspondent tried to reach Lutful Habib over the phone for his comment in this regard several times, but he didn’t respond.

According to families of the victim and Singra police station, Lutful Habib has submitted his nomination paper to contest the polls for the post of upazila chairman. Nobody else had submitted nomination papers for the post of upazila chairman as of Sunday.

However, On Monday morning, Delowar Hossain came to the Natore station area to submit his nomination form online from a local cyber cafe. His brother and Kolom union Awami League joint general secretary Emdadul Haque and union Awami League general secretary Alauddin Munshi went out to deposit the security money on behalf of Delowar.

As soon as they reached the district election office, they were stopped by a group of youth. At one point, the miscreants forced them to get into a black microbus and fled. Their cell phones were found switched off after that. Failing to trace the missing persons after a long time, Delowar dialled 999 to inform the police.

However, speaking to this correspondent over the phone at around 3.32 pm Monday, upazila Swechchhasebak League president Hasan Imam said he was taking the two missing AL leaders to their home on a microbus. Abducted Kolom union AL general secretary Alauddin Munshi also talked to this correspondent at the time

Alauddin Munshi also told Prothom Alo that upazila Swechchhasebak League president Hasan Imam was taking them home from Natore. They were with him, he said. However, the police are yet to rescue them.

Later at around 3:45 pm Delowar Hossain spoke to this correspondent and described the entire incident. After that he went to the district election office with another of his brothers to submit the copy of his nomination paper where he was beaten and picked up on the same black microbus. A newsperson named Kamal Hossain was present at the scene. He told Prothom Alo, Singra upazila Swechchhasebak League general secretary Mohon Ali and others beat Delowar and picked him up by a microbus.

This correspondent tried Mohon Ali over the phone several times, but he didn’t respond.

Singra police station officer-in-charge Abul Kalam said he learnt about the incident from the emergency call on 999. He said the abducted were being taken to different places on a microbus. The police are trying to identify their location. The second incident occurred in an area beyond the jurisdiction of Singra police station. So he would have to contact the respective police station in this regard.

Natore superintendent of police (SP) Tariqul Islam said, “I didn’t know about the morning incident. I was informed of the second incident only. Already several teams of police are in the field to nab the miscreants and rescue Delowar and others.”

Natore deputy commissioner Abu Naser Bhuiyan said the district election official confirmed the incident. He has advised the SP to set up checkpoints to rescue the abducted persons. Proper action will be taken after investigation.