THE Bangladeshi born UK citizen Touhidur Rahman who was reportedly arrested from the city’s Nilkhet area as the alleged financier of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), which is accused of serial killing of bloggers, was in fact picked up from his sister’s Dhanmondi flat on May 28 by plain clothed people as per news report. But RAB claimed that they have arrested him with two accomplices from the city’s Dhanmondi area on Tuesday night raising questions which claims were true and where Tauhidur was held over the last three months and who held him without public disclosure. We want that every effort must be made to break the killers’ network and their funding sources destroyed but there must be utmost care also that innocent people are not made to suffer. Tauhidur’s sister, a physician at a private hospital in the city claimed that she had lodged a general diary on the abduction of his brother by plain clothed men immediately after the incident with Dhanmondi police station. She also sought help of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and her claim was reaffirmed on Tuesday by the Chairman of the Commission when he said he had also talked with RAB authorities in this regard. The government-owes an answer but nobody is coming forth, although a citizen can’t be held in secret custody denying him access to legal assistance. If Tauhidur was really involved in the killing of religious haters Avijit in Dhaka or Ananta Dey in Sylhet, as RAB said, he should have been publicly charged without holding him in secret custody. Bangladesh must not be a country where the people will have to live in constant fear about the safety and security.
