Kidnap reported frequently
Abduction spree continues across the country with at least six people having been kidnapped in four districts in the past week alone.
Five of the abductees, however, have been rescued while two policemen and a police source have been arrested in connection with abduction.
The abductions in Kurigram, Noakhali, Tangail and Gazipur districts came hot on the heels of the abductions and brutal killings of seven people in Narayanganj last week.
In Kurigram, the police constables and an informant were arrested on charge of abducting Mahidul Islam, director of a local NGO Gram Unnayan Sangathan in Roumari upazila.
Constable Atiquzzaman of the Detective Branch (DB) of police, constable Mamunur Rashid and source Manu were arrested on Wednesday night when they were distributing among them Tk 10,000 ransom taken from the victim's brother Liton, who sent the money through bkash, a mobile phone-based financial transaction service.
On information from the trio, police rescued Mahidul on Thursday, Sanjay Kumar Kundu, Kurigram police superintendent, said.
Shah Alam, another police constable allegedly involved in the abduction, was still at large.
All the three policemen were temporarily suspended, said the Kurigram SP.
In Noakhali, a local businessman was allegedly kidnapped from Begumganj yesterday.
Victim's brother Abul Hossen said two men riding on a motorbike picked up Abul Bashar from Alaiyapur area around 12:30pm and sped away.
About two hours later, Bashar's wife received a phone call and heard her husband from the other end. Bashar told his wife that he had been kidnapped and asked her to send Tk 5 lakh to the abductors through bkash.
Ehsanul Kabir, assistant superintendent of Begumganj circle police, said they have received the complaints and were trying to rescue Bashar.
Meanwhile in Tangail, three people were rescued and nine people were arrested in connection with the abductions in the last three days.
Police rescued Ekramul Alam Dipu, 25, of Gazipur's Joydevpur and Arif Mia, 24, of Tangail's Kalihati after they raided a house in Pikora village of Kalihati upazila on Thursday night. After kidnapping them from Ashulia and Bypile areas of Gazipur on Wednesday night, the abductors had asked the victims' families to come to the village with Tk 2 lakh ransom for each. A microbus used in the kidnapping was seized from there.
Earlier on Wednesday night, the DB police of Tangail rescued a garment worker three days into his abduction and arrested five people in this connection.
Mobarak Hossain, 25, was kidnapped while he was returning from his workplace to his rented house at Konabari in Gazipur on Monday.
Police rescued him from the Baby Stand area of Kalihati after tracking the location of the calls made by the abductors to demand ransom from the victim's wife.
Meanwhile, an abducted school boy was found near his home in Gazipur on Thursday night seven days after his abduction.
Mobarok Hossain Rakib, 14, was allegedly abducted on April 24 when he was returning after his school, said his father Rafiqul Islam, who runs a cooperative at Barmi Bus Stand area in Sreepur upazila.
Earlier on April 9, the same group of kidnappers abducted Rakib's younger brother Mehedi Hasan. The 11-year-old was found dead near his home a day later.
Rafiqul suspects the same people, who killed Mehedi, were behind Rakib's abduction as well.
"After the kidnapped Rakib, I got numerous calls from the abductors. They said they had orders to kill all the members of my family … They didn't tell me who or where they got the orders from," Rafiqul told The Daily Star.
In Naogaon, locals caught 11 people who were trying to kidnap a businessman in Manda upazila on Thursday.
They rescued Bazlur Rashid, 35, a cloth store owner at Mithapukur Bazar, and seized a microbus used by the culprits, reports Bangla daily the Prothom Alo.
After a mob-beating, the abductors were handed over to police.
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