Take steps to trace Mubashar

Academics from home and abroad, who had worked with missing North South University (NSU) teacher Mubashar Hasan, have urged the prime minister to take steps to find him.

“We're deeply concerned for the safety and wellbeing of our close friend and former colleague, Dr Mubashar Hasan who disappeared on the 7th November 2017 in Dhaka,” they said in a petition signed by 275 academics from different countries.

The online petition, started by his colleagues in Griffith University in Australia, was submitted to the offices of the prime minister and home minister on Monday.

“Dr. Mubashar Hasan, a Bangladeshi professor and internationally renowned policy analyst working at North South University, is a highly valued and respected member of the academic community across the world,” read the letter sent to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Some of the signatories are from Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the UK and Bangladesh. They have studied, worked and published papers with Mubashar, Lucy West, PhD Candidate of school of international relations at Griffith University, told The Daily Star in an email.

“In the interest of preserving universal civil liberties and political rights, we call on the Bangladeshi government and Dhaka Metropolitan Police to do all in their power to locate Mubashar Hasan.”

Lucy West started the petition jointly with Dr Shannon Brincat and Dr Lee Morgenbesser.

Another petition, titled, “A Call to the Government of Bangladesh: Secure the Release of Mubashar Hasan Immediately” was started on Change.org has been signed by 2,710 supporters so far.

Mubashar, a researcher of political Islam and assistant professor of political science at NSU, disappeared after he had left his workplace around 4:30pm on November 7. Police said he last talked with someone using his phone at 6:41pm when he was near Lions Eye Hospital.

Mubashar's father Motahar Hossain filed a general diary around 1:00am the next day with Khilgaon Police Station.

Mubashar is among a host of individuals who have fallen victims to abduction or enforced disappearance in recent months.