A British national of Bangladeshi origin has been missing for about four months after he was picked up allegedly by some law enforcers.
His family said he had been picked by a group of persons identifying themselves as members of a law enforcement agency.
A person introducing himself as a ‘source’ of the law enforcement agency, coerced the family into paying Tk 50 lakh (Tk 5 million) with a threat of ‘crossfire’, the family alleged.
The missing person is Yasin Mohammed Abdus Samad (35).
His mother, physician Suraiya Parveen, said he was picked up by persons in a microbus on 14 July afternoon in front of the Banani railway station near the Banani police outpost. Yasin, son of a physician, lived in Banani DOHS of the capital city.
His mother Suraiya Parveen Talukdar filed a general diary with the Bhashantek police station on the same day.
The GD stated that Yasin had left home at 11:25am on 14 July to attend his cousin’s wedding in Kaliakoir, Gazipur. He was driving himself. He stopped in front of the Banani railway station where he was supposed to pick up another cousin, Sidrat Mahmud, at 11:30am. Sidrat said he was at Banani road 11 and would reach Yasin in 10 minutes. At 11:42 Sidrat got another call from Yasin. He could hear an argument and then shouts, but Yasin didn’t get a chance to speak on the phone. Yasin’s phone was turned off three minutes after that.
When Sidrat reached the spot at 11:50, Yasin had gone, but the car was left there.
The GD stated, a ticket seller at Banani railway station told Sidrat that a black microbus had drawn up by Yasin’s car. He was involved in an altercation with a plainclothes man and was later taken away in the microbus.
Yasin’s mother told Prothom Alo that two persons came to her house at 11:45 pm two days after Yasin was picked up. They introduced themselves Major Nahid and Major Masud from the RAB headquarters. They even had ID cards with them. They searched the house and riffled through Yasin’s books. They took away two of Yasin’s laptops, his mother’s laptop and the CPU of a computer.
Suraiya Parveen said, two days after Yasin went missing, an inspector from the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) went to their house and asked various questions.
PBI special police super (investigations and operations) Ahsan Habib told Prothom Alo that they had gone to make inquiries following the GD being filed at the Bhashantek police station. When the family told them that a different agency had picked up Yasin, they didn’t carry out further investigations.
A close relative of Yasin, on condition of anonymity, told Prothom Alo that they grew alarmed after failing to locate Yasin with any of the law enforcement agencies. Then on 1 August Iqbal Hossain alias Iqbal Mistri brought a well-built, tall, bearded man to Yasin’s mother. He said he was a ‘source’ of a law enforcement agency, though he didn’t specify which agency or his own name. He was accompanied by two others. The so-called source said he often got persons released from the law enforcement agencies in exchange of payment. He said he had seen Yasin and that Yasin was about to face crossfire. He said he could bring Yasin home in 15 days if they paid him Tk 2 crore (Tk 20 million).
The family initially agreed to pay Tk 20 lakh (Tk 2 million) and later the source agreed to Tk 30 lakh (Tk 3 million). He was paid Tk 15 lakh (Tk 1.5 million) that very day. Many of Yasin’s close relatives were present at the time.
The relatives said that the source came three more times till 5 August and took away another Tk 10 lakh (Tk 1 million). After taking a total of Tk 25 lakh (Tk 2.5 million), the person came again and scared Suraiya Parveen by saying that her son might be killed in crossfire like the nine killed in the police raid on the militant hideout in Kalyanpur. He said Tk 30 lakh (Tk 3 million) would not be enough, Tk 50 lakh (Tk 5 million) would have to be paid. Suraiya paid the source Tk 20 lakh (Tk 2 million) on 8 August. He had accompanied her when she withdrew Tk 2 lakh (Tk 200,000) from Sonali Bank in Banani. Her paying him the money was caught on the bank’s CCTV. Then on 14 August she paid him another Tk 5 lakh (Tk 500,000) from that bank branch.
Two and a half months have passed since then but Suraiya Parveen hasn’t got her son back. She told Prothom Alo that after receiving the full payment, the source no longer answered the phone. When asked why she handed over so much money to an unknown person, she said, “I heard many persons were released after the source was paid. When Iqbal Hossain brought the source over, I saw a light of hope.” Iqbal was a contractor of many buildings being constructed in Banani DOHS and that was how she knew him.
Mohammed Iqbal Hossain told Prothom Alo that he had met a person named Mujib in Kalshi, Mirpur. Mujib told him that he got persons released from the law enforcement agencies in exchange of money. Iqbal then took him to Yasin’s family.
Mujib’s phone remains turned off.
Yasin’s relatives said, the source always came by car to collect the money. The car’s number was Dhaka Metro Ga 23-1588. Prothom Alo identified the car’s owner as Abdul Baten who worked for a bank. He would rent his car out regularly to a man named Alam. Alam had rented the car in August too.
The description given by Baten of Alam matches that of the source. Baten said that the driver told him that Alam was a contractor with various government organisations and also worked with a construction form. He lived in Mirpur section 6.
A senior officer of the construction company said the man’s name was Haji Alam and has said he would be getting a large construction contract in the cantonment area. He had come to the company for logistic support.
On Thursday Haji Alam answered a different phone number, but hung up when asked if he had taken Tk 50 lakh (Tk 5 million) from Yasin’s family. He hasn’t answered the phone since then.
Meanwhile, in a statement on 28 October, the Asian Human Rights Commission said that some shopkeepers and a passerby had seen Yasin being picked up. On condition of anonymity, they said the DB and RAB personnel often picked up persons from that area.
RAB’s legal and media wing director Mufti Mahmud Khan on Thursday told Prothom Alo that RAB arrests persons on specific charges and, according to law, places them in court within 24 hours. If we had picked up Yasin, we would have produced him before the court.”
In the meantime, Bhashantek police station officer-in-charge (OC) told Prothom Alo, “The place where Yasin’s mother said he had been picked up, is under the Banani police station’s jurisdiction. She came to Bhashantek to file the GD. As she is an elderly lady, I didn’t send her to the Banani police station, but sent the matter there myself.”
Banani police station OC PM Farman Ali told Prothom Alo, the GD has been registered with them and they are investigating the matter, though nothing had come to light as yet.
The 67-year-old Suraiya Parveen lives alone. Her daughter lives in London. Her relations occasionally visit her.
Since Yasin went missing, his wife has been staying at her father’s home with their five-year-old son.
Suraiya Parveen said that Yasin has passed his O levels and A levels in Dhaka and then graduated as an engineer from Queen Mary University in London with a first class first degree. He thus received a scholarship to do his PhD. In 2005 he was once mugged in London’s White Chapel area.
Suraiya Parveen said that after being mugged, her son had turned towards religion. In 2006 he dropped his PhD programme to return home. He would attend Friday jumma prayers in various mosques in Dhaka and listen to the sermons. His wife was a teacher at an English medium school.
Suraiya Parveen said she had heard that there was a case against her son at the Shahbagh police station, filed in February last year. Nibras Islam, one of those killed in the Gulshan attack, was also on the list of accused persons in that case. Suraiya apprehends her son might have been picked up as a suspect of involvement in militancy. She said her son was religious, but not involved in anything as brutal as militancy.
An India-based online news portal, thewire.in, has just reported that the British high commission in Dhaka had confirmed that Yasin was in custody of the law enforcement agencies.
A spokesperson of the British high commission told Prothom Alo that they cannot make any immediate comment on such matters. If inquiries were made by e-mail, they would forward that on to their London office. Once the London office replied, they could then respond.