Staff Reporter :International news agency AFP’s Jakarta office has confirmed that the student Sabbir Hasan, 24, who was washed away in the Bay of Bengal last year and the youth found in Indonesia migrant camp were not same.The identity of the youth was verified by AFP’s Jakarta colleagues as Abdul Hakim, a resident of Cox’s Bazar. AFP journalists talked with Abdul Hakim and his friend Mizanur Rahman, said AFP Dhaka office on Saturday.Sabbir Hasan, a student of Computer Science Department of Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology in Dhaka along with his class friend Ishtiaque Bin Mahmud Udoy went to St. Martin’s Islands on April 14 last year to celebrate the Bangla New Year. About 32 fellow students were also with them. But the joyful trip ended in a tragedy as six of the students drowned in the sea while they were swimming. Of them, four bodies were recovered. But there was no trace of Sabbir and Udoy. After long 14 months, Sabbir’s parents claimed that their son was alive and was kept in an illegal migrant camp in Aceh, Indonesia when saw a AFP photograph in a newspaper on May 11. Hasanur Rahman, father of missing Sabbir Hasan, said, “That’s our son, we are sure about it,” said pointing at a youth in a photograph of the migrants.” To verify the claim and confirm the youth’s identity, AFP journalists in Jakarta on request of its Dhaka office travelled the migrants camp. In a facebook status yesterday, Shafiqul Alam, Bangladesh Bureau Chief of AFP, said, “Sorry to say, our photographer in Aceh has confirmed that the young man thought to be the long missing engineering student is not Sabbir Hassan. He is Abdul Hakim from Cox’s Bazar. I’ve interviewed him and his friend Mizanur Rahman!”
