Narayanganj Correspondent :
The nation has been stunned by another incident of abduction on Thursday night in Narayanganj when the country is yet to overcome the shock of serial kidnappings in the port city.
It appears that the members of law enforcing agencies in most cases have failed to arrest those involved in such heinous crimes.
A local businessman Syed Saiful Islam was abducted from Sanarpar area at Siddhirganj just hours after a new Police Superintendent took charge of Narayanganj in the backdrop of seven kidnappings last week.
The police could not trace Saiful despite massive hunt till the time of filing of this report
at 9:00 PM on Friday. Earlier, the local people set 6 PM as the deadline for administration to rescue him.
The victim’s family members have claimed that the kidnappers demanded Tk 20 lakh as ransom over phone. “We have received a call through cellular phone for a ransom of Tk20 lakh at about 2:30 AM on Thursday, ” wife of kidnapped man, Sadia Afrin Sultana, said.
“Manager of the business establishment of Saiful said the kidnappers have contacted over telephone and asked for Tk 20 lakh as ransom. The matter of demanding ransom has been mentioned in the general diary [GD] filed by the victims’ family,” said Abdul Matin OC of Siddhirganj police station.
The newly appointed SP Dr Mohid Uddin, however, was doubtful whether it was an incident of abduction. “It is still not clear to us whether it’s a case of abduction. We are looking into the matter,” he said.
Meanwhile, several hundred agitated people took to the streets again for the second time yesterday evening and put blockade covering Sanarpar area to Mouchak causing disruption in movement of traffic on Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Sylhet highways.
They were locked in clashes with the police and hurled brickbats to the law enforcers. Police charged batons, lobbed tear gas canisters and fired rubber bullets to disperse the agitated people.
Saiful, 35, son of Abdul Majid, owner of Ms Samia Super Store at Sanarpar Sona Meah Market in Siddhirganj went out of his residence at around 9:00pm on Thursday. He remains traceless since then.
“The police are conducting drive to rescue him. We are conducting operation based on a GD filed with the concerned police station by the victim’s family members,” Shohidul Islam, Additional SP of Narayanganj said yesterday.
Officials said the police have taken the manger of Saiful’s business farm Md Habibur Rahman to the local police station for interrogation on suspicion of his involvement in the incident.
The members of Rapid Action Battalion [RAB] and other intelligence agencies yesterday visited the residence and shop of Saiful for any clue about the incident.
“We are trying our best to rescue the kidnapped person alive,” said Md Zakaria, Additional SP [District Special Branch] in Narayanganj.
It may be recalled that he had assured the agitating people that it would be possible to rescue Saiful within 6 PM on Friday.
Earlier, in the morning, several thousand agitated local people took to the streets at Sanarpard area protesting the abduction resulting in disruption in movement of traffic on Dhaka-Chittagong highway for hours till 1:00pm due to the blockade.
Police at that time charged baton indiscriminately and lobbed tear gas canisters whenever the protesters tried to march towards Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
The agitators later withdrew their blockade from the highway in the afternoon. But they threatened to go for a tougher movement if the law enforcers fail to rescue Saiful. They also set a deadline till 6:00pm to local administration for rescuing the abducted person.
Meanwhile, the kidnap of Saiful has come as a great shock to the people of port city Narayanganj who are still in grief following the abduction and murder of seven persons including that of panel mayor Nazrul Islam and advocate Chandan Sarker.
Their bodies together with bodies of five others were found floating in the Shitalakhya river at Kilagachia area under Bandar police station on Wednesday afternoon and early Thursday.
