Efforts still on to find Ilias Ali: RAB

Rebuffing a recent news published by Netra News, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said the elite force is still trying to find out BNP leader Ilias Ali who was ‘picked up’ by unidentified persons more than 10 years ago.

RAB’s legal and media wing director Khandaker Al Moin disclosed this at a press briefing on Thursday.

BNP organising secretary Ilias Ali and his driver Ansar Ali were picked up from the city's Banani area on 17 April 2012. Police recovered Ilias’ personal car from the spot but the BNP leader’s whereabouts could not be located as yet.

Netra News, a Sweden-based news media on last 17 April published a story on the ‘disappearance’ of Ilias Ali. The report claimed that some RAB personnel were involved with the incident. The report published the names of three RAB officials in the disappearance of Ilias Ali.

Asked about the news, RAB legal and media wing director Khandkar Al Moin told the newspersons at the press briefing at the media center, “RAB thinks the news of Netra News is totally baseless. RAB is a law enforcement agency and we conduct all our operations abiding by the law. The information presented in the news is totally baseless.”

“We have given Ilias Ali’s wife the best legal assistance whenever she gas come to us since the disappearance of her husband,” Moin said.

He said the RAB is still cooperating with Ilias Ali’s wife and conducting drives whenever they get any information about him.

On Monday, BNP organised a discussion meeting marking ten years of Ilias Ali’s ‘disappearance’. In the programme titled ‘Bring back Ilias Ali and other victims of enforced disappearance’, Ilias Ali’s wife Tahsina Rushdir said it is now confirmed that law enforcers picked up Ilias Ali.

She also said that arrangements made of her visit to the prime minister's office and subsequent assurance to search Ilias Ali were all pretence.

BNP called a five-day hartal at that time, and the assurances were made to stop the opposition party’s agitation, she alleged.