RAB abducted man, demanded Tk 2 cr

The family of Siddhirganj Awami League activist Ismail Hossain, who is also a businessman of Narayanganj, brought allegation against RAB 11 former commanding officer (CO) Tareque Sayeed Mohammad for abducting Ismail.

Ismail's family members said Tareque himself demanded Tk 2 crore from them in exchange for releasing Ismail.

Ismail, 50, was abducted three months ago. He is still missing.

Ismail's wife Josna Begum and his brother Abdul Mannan were present in second phase of the public hearing over 7-murder case on Thursday. They informed the investigation body of the matter in detail and requested them for rescuing Ismail.

Abdul Mannan on Wednesday told Prothom Alo, "My brother was returning home in his friend's car on 7 February. A microbus stopped their car on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway near Paindi area of Siddhirganj. The men of the microbus were carrying arms; they introduced themselves as RAB members and took away my brother."

Josna Begum said that I along with Mannan met Tareque Sayeed at RAB 11 office. He said, "Ismail is a hundred per cent dangerous man. He is a bad man. Why did you come for him?"

"As we beg to him, at one stage he said that we have to pay him Tk 2 crore if we want Ismail alive," added Josna.

"He gave us one day for gathering the money and warned us not to inform police or anyone else. Otherwise Ismail would not return alive." 

She also said, "After returning from the RAB office, we sold our lands and jewelleries. We went to our relatives. One of our relatives sold his shop and gave us money. We managed to gather around Tk 1 crore. At that time, another RAB officer major Arif contacted us. He told us we have to pay Tk 2 crore, otherwise we would not get back Ismail".

Meanwhile RAB got busy with the upazila council election, therefore they could not meet them.

Later, they went to major Arif. He said, "You have already discussed the matter with many people. It was not fair." He did not talk any more.

Abdul Mannan said that he came to know Ismail was confined in a room at the ground floor of RAB 11 camp, which is situated in a three-storied building [also known as Bachelor building] in Adamji EPZ. 

Mannan believes that his brother is still alive.