'He's not their son'
The youth found in Indonesia is not Sabbir, the private university student washed away in the Bay of Bengal last year, reports AFP Jakarta office.
The identity of the youth has been verified as Abdul Hakim, a resident of Cox's Bazar, said AFP Dhaka office yesterday, citing their Jakarta colleagues.
Sabbir Hasan and his friend Ishtiaque Bin Mahmud Udoy, both students of Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology in Dhaka, went on a trip to St Martins along with 32 fellow students in April last year to celebrate the Bangla New Year.
The joyful trip took a tragic turn when six of the students drowned in the sea on April 14. Four bodies were recovered but those of Sabbir and Udoy could not be found.
Around 14 months after the incident when Sabbir's parents saw an AFP photograph in a newspaper on May 11, they claimed that their son was alive and kept in an illegal migrant camp in Aceh, Indonesia.
"That's our son, we are sure about it," Hasanur Rahman, father of missing Sabbir Hasan, said pointing at a youth in a photograph of the migrants. He was talking to The Daily Star on Thursday.
Following the claim, AFP journalists in Jakarta on request from its Dhaka office travelled long distance to verify the youth's identity.
In a Facebook status yesterday, Shafiqul Alam, Bangladesh bureau chief at AFP, says, “Sorry to say, our photographer in Aceh has confirmed that the young man thought to be the long missing engineering student is not Sabbir Hassan. He is Abdul Hakim from Cox's Bazar. I've interviewed him and his friend Mizanur Rahman!”
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