Expatriate abducted on the elevated expressway after landing at the Chattogram airport

Imran Munna flew in from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to visit his ailing father who is bedridden in the hospital.

After landing at Chattogram’s Shah Amanat International Airport at 10am yesterday, Monday, he hired a CNG-run autorickshaw to head home. As the vehicle got onto the Patenga elevated expressway, Munna and one of his relatives were abducted at gunpoint.

Police rescued them from the Bayazid Bostami area of Chattogram city later in the evening, but none of the abductors were arrested. No case had been filed over the incident as of last night.

Officer-in-Charge of Patenga Police Station, Kazi Sultan Mohammad Ahsan Uddin, told Prothom Alo last night that although the abduction took place in Patenga, the victims were rescued in the Bayazid Bostami area.

When asked to file a case there, Imran, the abducted expatriate, initially refused, but police were trying to persuade him to do so.

Sub-Inspector (SI) Nur Islam of Bayazid Bostami Police Station told Prothom Alo that Imran Munna’s ancestral home is in Najumiahat of Hathazari. After landing at the airport, he boarded an autorickshaw to head home, accompanied by a relative named Sulaiman.

As their autorickshaw got onto the Shaheed Wasim Akram elevated expressway, a private car intercepted them. The abductors, brandishing local weapons, forced them into an abandoned cotton mill in the Aturar Depot area under Bayazid Bostami Police Station.

Patenga police learned about the abduction from a confidential source and alerted several other stations, including Bayazid. Acting on the information, a police team from Bayazid conducted a raid at the location. As soon as police approached, the kidnappers fled the scene.

Expatriate Munna was rescued first, followed shortly by his relative Sulaiman. Munna’s luggage was also recovered from the spot.

Sub-Inspector Mohammad Mostafa of Bayazid Bostami Police Station, who took part in the operation, told Prothom Alo that detailed statements were taken from the two victims and the autorickshaw driver. Police kept trying to convince the victims to file a case until midnight, but they refused to do so.

When contacted by phone later that night, expatriate Imran Munna declined to comment on the incident.