A businessman abducted on Thursday night from Narayanganj has been found at Savar’s Nabinagar, on the outskirts of capital Dhaka. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) rescued Saiful Islam, 35, near the National Memorial around 11:45pm on Friday. Locals and witnesses said he was found near a restaurant ‘Bismillah Hotel’ after his captors, who were in a white microbus, left him there. The restaurant is situated opposite to the memorial at Nabinagar. The elite force team rescued him from there and took him to RAB-4 camp at Nabinagar. RAB Media Wing Director ATM Habibur Rahman briefed reporters there around 1:30am Saturday. He said, “RAB investigators started digging around after the abductors called Islam’s family several times and demanded Tk 2 million as ransom.” Islam was apparently kept at a location west of Dhaka, he added. “The miscreants may have released him after sensing RAB activity,” he suspected. They will be arrested soon, Rahman declared. Earlier around Friday midnight, RAB Additional Director General Ziaul Ahsan had told bdnews24.com a RAB team was following the vehicle of the abductors. “They suddenly tossed Saiful Islam out of it and fled.” Meanwhile, Saiful Islam’s wife Sadia Afrin Sultana arrived at RAB-4 camp on getting news of her husband’s rescue. Islam told reporters that he did not see who had abducted him Thursday night. He also said he had no enemies. “Four or five people came from behind and shoved me inside a vehicle. They kept my head down and I lost consciousness after a while.” “I found myself sitting, blindfolded and my hands and legs were tied when I woke up. “A man had come to check on me at the time. They gave me a bread to eat the next morning.” After a while, the abductors took him, blindfolded, hands and legs tied up, inside the vehicle and started for somewhere, Islam said. “They tossed me out after freeing my hands and legs and taking the blindfold off.” People told him it was near the National Memorial when he got up and went to the restaurant, he added. “Then RAB officials arrived there.” His wife Sultana had lodged a general diary at Siddhirganj Police Station earlier, alleging the abductors had contacted her over phone and demanded Tk 1 million as ransom. He went missing from Narayanganj’s Sanarparh around 10pm Thursday, Islam’s business manager had told police. On Friday morning, local businessmen and residents of the area blockaded the Dhaka-Chittagong highway near Sanarparh bus terminal protesting against his abduction and demanding immediate action. They, however, left the road after sometime following police assurance. Narayanganj is still gripped by tension after several incidents of abduction took place there. Bodies of seven men including a city corporation councillor, abducted from Narayanganj on Apr 27, were recovered on Wednesday and Thursday from the Shitalakhya River. Earlier, another businessman, Abu Bakar Siddique, husband of environmental lawyer Syeda Rizwana Hasan, was abducted. He was, however, found alive nearly 35 hours later. – bdnews24.com
