Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire | feeds from sacw.net | @sacw
Home > General > Bangladesh: Writer, Columnist, Farhad Mazhar Kidnapped - news (...)

Bangladesh: Writer, Columnist, Farhad Mazhar Kidnapped - news reports

3 July 2017

print version of this article print version

BBC News - 3 July 2017

Bangladeshi human rights campaigner Farhad Mazhar disappears

A well-known Bangladeshi human rights activist has disappeared after leaving his home in the capital Dhaka on Monday.

Farhad Mazhar - a columnist who is often critical of the government - left the house early after getting a phone call, his wife Farida Akter told the BBC, and has not been seen since.

Ms Akter has received a ransom demand.

Human rights groups say enforced disappearances and abductions are rising in Bangladesh.

Police officer Aleya Akhter told news agency AFP that the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of 3.5 million taka ($43,300/£33,400).

Police are investigating.

Mr Mazhar, 69, is a supporter of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Party officials say many of their activists and supporters have been detained illegally since 2014.

o o o

The Daily Star - July 03, 2017

‘Missing’ Farhad Mazhar traced in Khulna, Rab drive on

Star Online Report

Rapid Action Battalion members were conducting drive in Khulna to rescue Farhad Mazhar as the columnist was traced there this evening hours into he went missing from Dhaka.

Mazhar was located in KDA Approach Road area of Khulna with the help of technology, Utpal Roy, company commander of Rab-6, told The Daily Star.

“We’re conducting drive in Khulna based on mobile-tracking information. We’re trying to find him out in the area,†Roy said.

Earlier in the day, he went out of his Adabar house around 5:00am, said Biplob Kumar Sarker, deputy commissioner (Tejgaon division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, quoting his wife Farida Akter.

According to Farida, half an hour after Mazhar, also a researcher, went out of the house, he called her through his mobile phone and said, “Save me, they have kidnapped me. They will kill me†.

After receiving a verbal complaint, police visited his house and found a CCTV footage that shows Mazhar leaving the house around 5:07am “in normal gesture†, the police official said.

A general diary was filed with Adabor Police Station in connection with the incident, DC Biplob said.