Joynal Abedin Khan :
Mizanur Rahman Sohag, friend of slain student Sohagi Jahan Tonu’s brother Anwar Hossain, returned home on Tuesday 16 days after his disappearance.
Sohag was picked up by six to eight persons, who introduced themselves as law enforcers, from his house at Narayansar village in Burichang upazila of Comilla at around 1:30am on March 27, his family members alleged.
But police and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have denied having taken Sohag into custody.
Selim Mia, uncle of Sohag, found him standing in front of Sakura Filling Station in Nazira Bazar area near their house around 6:00am while he went out for a morning walk.
“My hands and legs were tied up and kept in a room. They used to loose my one hand during meal timne. The captors did not torture or interrogate him. But I could not trace the place,” Sohag told reporters in the afternoon.
Sohag said, “A microbus had dropped him off near his home at Narayansar Intersection on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. There was no one else inside the vehicle except the driver.”
The driver asked him to get down and showed him the way to their home.
When his father found him he appeared ‘weak, drowsy and sounded incoherent.
“My son organised a protest against the killing of Tonu in the locality. I think this is why the members of the Rapid Action Battalion picked him up,” he said.
Tonu’s brother Anwar Hossain said, “I have studied with Sohag at Kalakchua Kazim Uddin Khondokar High School. I used to have chit chats with him sometimes when I visited his area in the evening.”
Khaleda Akter, elder sister of Sohag, said after his picking up by the law enforcers, they contacted with Rapid Action Battalion and Detective Branch of police, but they declined to detain him.
Later, a general diary was filed with Burichang Police Station in this connection on March 30.
Burichang Police Station Officer-in-Charge Uttam Kumar Barua said that they have been informed of the matter and police would visit Sohag’s residence.
Sohagi Jahan Tonu, a second-year history student of Comilla Victoria Government College and cultural activist, was found murdered near her residence inside the cantonment area on March 20. Her father Yaar Hossain, an office assistant of the Cantonment Board, filed a case with Kotwali police the next day without naming anyone.
Investigators have so far failed to make any breakthrough. The case was initially handed over to DB on March 25. The Criminal Investigation Department was put in charge of the case on March 26.
Students and people from all walks of life, including cultural activists, have been demonstrating in Comilla, Dhaka and elsewhere, demanding the culprits be arrested immediately and given exemplary punishment.
