Questions go unanswered
He was abducted in broad daylight at gunpoint, released unhurt about 33 hours later, and his captors demanded no ransom from him or his family. So why was Abu Bakar Siddique, husband of prominent environment lawyer Syeda Rizwana Hasan, kidnapped and by whom?
Neither the law enforcers nor the victim and his family can say it for sure, but it is intriguing that the kidnappers deliberately tried to conceal their purpose.
Briefing journalists at their Central Road house yesterday, Rizwana said that during the captivity her husband got no clue about the kidnappers or their motive.
"The abductors talked about money several times before him so he could hear, but they did not demand any ransom or ask for any telephone number of any family members so they can demand money. This seems to be a mystery," said the chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela).
If it was not for money, it was for something else but that, too, remains a puzzle.
Siddique is known to be a friendly person and is said to have no enemy. He is the managing director of Hamid Fashion, a Narayanganj-based garment factory owned by Awami League lawmaker and State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid Bipu.
According to Bipu, Siddique, his school friend, joined his factory 15 years ago. “He [Siddique] is a modest, amicable and trustworthy man, and I have no clue why he had been abducted."
Siddique's wife Rizwana, a Ramon Magsaysay Award winner, is renowned for her campaign and legal battles against environment polluters, including ship-breaking industries and tanneries, and some big housing companies owned by influential people.
One of her recent campaigns was to save Dhanmondi playground.
Asked if her work had any link with her husband's kidnap, Rizwana said such possibilities could not be ruled out.
In the past, she said, she received threats on several occasions for her work. "Those threats and this abduction are both violent acts. There is a link here, as both are criminal acts."
She, however, received no threats after gunmen kidnapped her husband around 2:30pm on Wednesday in Fatullah of Narayanganj.
A gang of six to seven, on a blue microbus, were following Siddique's red saloon since he left Hamid Fashion. The microbus knocked the car from behind near Firoz Filling Station in Bhuigarh area.
As Siddique and his driver Ripon got down from the car to check the damage, the miscreants hit Ripon in the head with a revolver, sprayed pepper over his face and dragged Siddique onto the microbus. It all happened within a few minutes.
And the way he was freed is also shrouded in mystery.
In the wake of intense pressure from the law enforcers and the media, the kidnappers left him blindfolded near Ansar Camp in Mirpur around 11:20pm on Thursday, and even gave him Tk 300. He hired a rickshaw from there to come to Kazipara from where he took a CNG-run auto-rickshaw to reach home.
Police later spotted him near Kalabagan on his way home around midnight yesterday, and took him to Dhanmondi Police Station. He later went to his Central Road home from there.
During yesterday's press briefing, Siddique said the abductors blindfolded him, tied his hands and legs and covered his face with a piece of cloth as soon as they forced him into the microbus.
"The abductors were aged around 35 and were well-built. Their height would be more or less the same, about 5 feet 7 inches," he said.
One of them, unlike the others, was well-dressed. "This man pointed the gun at me and forced me into the microbus."
Siddique told The Daily Star that the gang leader seemed to be educated, but not the other ones who guarded him at the house.
The house could be somewhere in Gazipur, he said, adding that during his captivity one guard asked him if his wife had any dispute with anyone over land-relates issues.
Rizwana said the abductors tried to conceal their motive and their identities by asking the name and the profession of her husband.
The Bela chief said she gave some names to the law enforcers in connection with the abduction.
"All of them are influential people," she said, declining to disclose the names.
Asked if she negotiated with the law enforcers for her husband's release, she said, "One has to negotiate when there is an issue. But I have no issues. My concern was to get back my husband alive."
After the incident, she said, none of her family members was feeling safe. "I hope our security would be ensured from the state level."
SIDDIQUE GIVES DEPOSITION
Abu Bakar Siddique yesterday gave deposition before a magistrate in Narayanganj about his abduction.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Begum Chandni Rupam recorded the statement.
He later told reporters that he could not give much information about the abductors or the place he was taken to as he was kept blindfolded all the time.
He reached the court premises along with his wife around 12:30pm.
Earlier around 11:00am, the couple went to the office of Narayanganj Superintendent of Police Syed Nurul Islam by a police car, where a doctor examined Siddique.
After the check-up, the doctor, Sheikh M Forhan, said he found marks of bruise around his eyes, on his nose and wrists as he was blindfolded and his hands were tied.
On their next move, the SP said they would continue the investigation.
Asked why Siddique was kidnapped, he said, "It is too early to make a comment on the motive."
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